Open response to Stager's complaint

The Noah Principal: No more prizes for predicting rain. Prizes only for building arks. Louis Gerstner

One of my favorite educational scolds, Gary Stager, yesterday excoriated "the most popular, hired and prolific members of the EduBlogosphere" for not jumping up and down about the recent findings that showed the Reading First program was not as effective as promised. He writes:

Literacy dominates my esteemed colleague's thoughts about education. Therefore, I find it shocking that there is so little [read: none] discussion of the news that the federal Department of Education has concluded that Reading First, the $6 billion shock and awe approach to literacy education at the core of No Child Left Behind, has FAILED to improve the reading comprehension of American students.

Why the silence among EduBloggers? Is this issue unimportant? Should we ignore the calamity created by Reading First just because it doesn't mention Twitter, Apture, Ning or other made-up words?

Or, are you waiting to be told what to think by Tom Friedman or Daniel Pink?

First let me say that I am positive that I am not even on Mr. Stager's radar, so this did not hurt my feelings in the least. But I have a much different take on whether Reading First was shamefully neglected as a topic of discussion among the bloggers I like to read for a few reasons:

1. I too was shocked, shocked to learn that politics and money and cronyism have ever played a role in education in this country. What will they discover next - that politicians have affairs? That governments sometimes spend money on stupid things?  Gary takes great pride in predicting Reading First would not be a success. Ya know, Gary, guessing this didn't require the skills of a Nostradamus. Sorry. And while this is a case of politics influencing education, most of us think of ourselves as educators first, political pundits a distant second. Or tenth.
   
2. A great many of us at a school district level simply have not been impacted by Reading First, didn't buy the product, didn't sacrifice other programs. Those bloggers working in schools tend to write and be interested in what they know and what impacts them. On a fundamental level, as long as federal funding accounts for about 3-4% of my district's financing, I will invest about 3-4% of my energy on federal issues. Even NCLB has had less impact on how a state decides to enforce it and district's to have it impact what they do as a result of it.
   
3. A great many bloggers would prefer to write about the positive, offering concrete suggestions about how education can be improved on a daily, personal, school or classroom level. I think we take Emily's to heart when she writes: "I dwell in Possibility-- A fairer House than Prose." We need people like you, Gary, with that 20,000 foot view. It's just that the stuff here on the ground is of more immediacy, more interest, more importance to many of us - even Nings. It's naive, I suppose, to think we can make change by celebrating the positive rather than crticizing negative, but ya just never know.
   
4. As a corollary, many of us have a pretty accurate perception of the limits of our influence (which I explored more fully here), knowing where we can most make a difference. Besides ranting - and belaboring the obvious that politicians (on both sides of the aisle) are clueless and corrupted by special interests - what in the Sam Hill do I have to contribute to this discussion, to urge my readers to do, to act in a way that will actually change a system? I'll certainly share this information within my own district to make better informed decisions about our reading efforts, but what more? Venting feels good, but does it do good?

Gary, I sincerely appreciate YOU writing about this. It does need to brought to all educators' attention. But the world only needs (and can take) so many Gary Stagers!

I like my bloggers building arks - not just predicting rain. 

www.vegetarianfriends.net/
 

Comments

[Tim]

I'm also not on Gary's radar but I have written several posts about Reading First over the years. However, I'm not sure what he wants in terms of a "discussion". There hasn't been much in the regular press on the subject and most of us don't have the contacts, resources, or time to do any independent investigation. That's probably true of even the "A-level" edubloggers.

On top of that, as you note, those of us writing about education have many different approaches to that very, VERY large topic and a variety of interests that tie directly to our day to day life. For most of us, Reading First is just one piece of the puzzle and not even a very significant one compared to everything else.

I agree with Gary, however, that there should be more outrage about this incredible waste of resources. But there should be more outrage about NCLB in general and especially about what it's doing to screw up American education. Unfortunately, most of the available outrage out there is directed at the over abundance of other government messes, some of which actually get people killed.

[Marshall]

Although I agree that the waste of resources is a shame and that it isnt' a first among legislatures to toute their own stupidity and ignorance, I must also appreciate the fact that we have actually had a widely known and implemented approach basically discreditd as the end-all-be-all. Now the "ark" is: Are we still doing Reading First in our schools around the country? and What about this legislative brain-child NCLB?

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Marshall,

Let's hope that this makes all educators AND the public a bit more skeptical of silver bullets in education. And that NCLB just disappears!

Thanks for writing in,

Doug