Minnesota Working to Take Politics Out of Education

For too long our educational system has been compromised by political ideology. However, we are beginning to see the vestiges of change in Minnesota where a measure was passed with bipartisan support that would require new teachers to demonstrate knowledge of research-based reading methodology before being issued a license. More recently, a couple of democratic legislators have joined republicans in support of alternative paths to teacher certification.http://alturl.com/jrzq http://alturl.com/p4dg

Feds Reject Wisconsin's Race to the Top Application

To his credit, President Obama has shown he is serious about requiring that states adhere to rigid standards before throwing federal dollars in their direction. Wisconsin found this out the hard way by submitting a woefully inadequate Race to the Top application. Among its improprieties was a failure to embrace early literacy instruction proven most effective through the introspective lens of investigative science. Wisconsin has played political gamesmanship over this issue for some time, turning its collective back on parents of struggling readers who have literally begged for research-based reading reform measures. How long will it take for Wisconsin and other states to lay politics aside and adopt methods that are most likely to guarantee their children's literacy futures?

Evidence Based Literacy Instruction - Making Dramatic Inroads toward Literacy

My sojourn into the reading wars has led me to some remarkable people. One is Nora Chahbazi who created a reading intervention program called EBLI for EVIDENCE BASED LITERACY INSTRUCTION. Nora delivers her program to adults and children at her Ounce of Prevention Reading Center in Flushing, Michigan, and travels around the country training others in its use.

EBLI is just another example of what can be accomplished with struggling readers when we bypass the conventional wisdom and give full expression to the scientific message. For more information, visit http://www.ebli.org and http://ooprc.wordpress.com/about/