Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of “Balanced Reading” Instruction [more…]
April 14, 2010
(Forward from the Fordham Institute publication. Find the complete report here)
Regular readers of this foundation’s publications and web site know we believe strongly that schools should utilize best practices that are supported by scientific research and should eschew classroom methods that do not work. In no domain of education is that contrast more vivid than in teaching young children to read. No domain has been studied more intensely. None has yielded clearer and more definitive findings about what works and what does not. Yet no domain is more vulnerable to the perpetuation of bad ideas and failed methods.
Three things are clear about early reading:
First, it isn’t being handled well in American schools. Four in ten of our fourth-graders lack basic reading skills. Tens of millions of adults are weak readers. Millions of children are needlessly classified as disabled when, in fact, their main problem is that nobody taught them to read when they were five and six years old.
Second, we know what works for nearly all children when it comes to imparting basic reading skills to them. (The scientific consensus is admirably summarized in the pages that follow.)
Third, we also know what doesn’t work for most children. It’s called whole language.
Yet whole language persists, despite efforts by policymakers and reading experts to root it out. Today, though, it often disguises itself, not using the term whole language but, rather, wearing the fig leaf of balanced instruction. A lot of people who have a casual acquaintance with the research have persuaded themselves that balanced reading instruction means a little of this, a little of that. Take a cup of phonics from one cupboard, add a half-pint of whole language from the fridge, and the resulting blend will succeed with children while avoiding the battles and conflicts of the reading wars. Everyone will be happy, and all will be well.
The problem is that it doesn’t work that way. What’s going on in many places in the name of balance or consensus is that the worst practices of whole language are persisting, continuing to inflict boundless harm on young children who need to learn to read. How and why that is happening, and how and why such practices are misguided and harmful, are what this report is about. In its pages, Louisa Cook Moats describes the whole-language approach; shows why it doesn’t work and how it has been disproven by careful research; and explains why it nonetheless persists in practice and what should be done about that.
We don’t kid ourselves. Rooting out failed methods of reading instruction from U.S. primary classrooms won’t be easy. Those roots run deep, perhaps now deeper than ever, considering their new coating of balance. Yet Dr. Moats persuasively makes the case that this is a task that must be taken on.
Louisa Moats is currently project director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Early Interventions Project in Washington, DC, a multiyear study of early reading instruction. She is one of the world’s leading voices for the application of reading research in teacher preparation and classroom instruction. After receiving her doctorate in reading at Harvard, Dr. Moats worked as a psychologist and consultant with individuals, schools, and education agencies. She assisted the California State Board of Education in implementing the California Reading Initiative. Her recent book, Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers (Brookes Publishing, 2000), is the basis for the innovative courses she teaches at the Greenwood Institute in Putney, Vermont, and Simmons College in Boston. Author of several other books and numerous journal articles, she currently serves as a national board member of the International Dyslexia Association. Readers wishing to contact Dr. Moats directly may write her at the NICHD Early Interventions Project, 825 North Capitol Street, NE, 8th Floor, Washington, DC 20002, or e-mail her at l.moats@worldnet.att.net.
We are honored to dedicate this report to the memory of Jeanne Sternlicht Chall, who taught not only Louisa Moats but also hundreds of other reading experts and teachers. Professor (and professor emerita) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 1965 until her death in 1999 at the age of 78, Jeanne Chall was, quite simply, the nation’s foremost authority on how children learn to read and how to teach them that most basic of basic skills. Her great book, Learning to Read: The Great Debate, first published in 1967, was the first to enunciate clearly the essential elements of the research synthesis that has since been refined and confirmed by, among others, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the recent National Reading Panel. Endlessly curious, astoundingly prolific, tireless in her pursuit of the truth and her capacity to propagate it through her many students and disciples, passionate in her commitment to the effective education of children (especially disadvantaged youngsters), Jeanne Chall embodied superb research skills and a rare sense of how to turn scholarship into practice. We’re deeply grateful for her contribution, and we miss her.
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation is a private foundation that supports research, publications, and action projects in elementary/secondary education reform at the national level and in the Dayton area. Further information can be obtained from our web site (www.edexcellence.net) or by writing us at 1627 K Street, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20006. (We can also be e-mailed through our web site.) This report is available in full on the Foundation’s web site, and hard copies can be obtained by calling 1-888-TBF-7474 (single copies are free). The Foundation is not connected to or sponsored by Fordham University.
Chester E. Finn, Jr., President
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
Washington, DC
Tags: reading, whole language
(Forward from the Fordham Institute publication. Find the complete report here)
Regular readers of this foundation’s publications and web site know we believe strongly that schools should utilize best practices that are supported by scientific research and should eschew classroom methods that do not work. In no domain of education is that contrast more vivid than in teaching young children to read. No domain has been studied more intensely. None has yielded clearer and more definitive findings about what works and what does not. Yet no domain is more vulnerable to the perpetuation of bad ideas and failed methods.
Three things are clear about early reading:
First, it isn’t being handled well in American schools. Four in ten of our fourth-graders lack basic reading skills. Tens of millions of adults are weak readers. Millions of children are needlessly classified as disabled when, in fact, their main problem is that nobody taught them to read when they were five and six years old.
Second, we know what works for nearly all children when it comes to imparting basic reading skills to them. (The scientific consensus is admirably summarized in the pages that follow.)
Third, we also know what doesn’t work for most children. It’s called whole language.
Yet whole language persists, despite efforts by policymakers and reading experts to root it out. Today, though, it often disguises itself, not using the term whole language but, rather, wearing the fig leaf of balanced instruction. A lot of people who have a casual acquaintance with the research have persuaded themselves that balanced reading instruction means a little of this, a little of that. Take a cup of phonics from one cupboard, add a half-pint of whole language from the fridge, and the resulting blend will succeed with children while avoiding the battles and conflicts of the reading wars. Everyone will be happy, and all will be well.
The problem is that it doesn’t work that way. What’s going on in many places in the name of balance or consensus is that the worst practices of whole language are persisting, continuing to inflict boundless harm on young children who need to learn to read. How and why that is happening, and how and why such practices are misguided and harmful, are what this report is about. In its pages, Louisa Cook Moats describes the whole-language approach; shows why it doesn’t work and how it has been disproven by careful research; and explains why it nonetheless persists in practice and what should be done about that.
We don’t kid ourselves. Rooting out failed methods of reading instruction from U.S. primary classrooms won’t be easy. Those roots run deep, perhaps now deeper than ever, considering their new coating of balance. Yet Dr. Moats persuasively makes the case that this is a task that must be taken on.
Louisa Moats is currently project director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Early Interventions Project in Washington, DC, a multiyear study of early reading instruction. She is one of the world’s leading voices for the application of reading research in teacher preparation and classroom instruction. After receiving her doctorate in reading at Harvard, Dr. Moats worked as a psychologist and consultant with individuals, schools, and education agencies. She assisted the California State Board of Education in implementing the California Reading Initiative. Her recent book, Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers (Brookes Publishing, 2000), is the basis for the innovative courses she teaches at the Greenwood Institute in Putney, Vermont, and Simmons College in Boston. Author of several other books and numerous journal articles, she currently serves as a national board member of the International Dyslexia Association. Readers wishing to contact Dr. Moats directly may write her at the NICHD Early Interventions Project, 825 North Capitol Street, NE, 8th Floor, Washington, DC 20002, or e-mail her at l.moats@worldnet.att.net.
We are honored to dedicate this report to the memory of Jeanne Sternlicht Chall, who taught not only Louisa Moats but also hundreds of other reading experts and teachers. Professor (and professor emerita) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 1965 until her death in 1999 at the age of 78, Jeanne Chall was, quite simply, the nation’s foremost authority on how children learn to read and how to teach them that most basic of basic skills. Her great book, Learning to Read: The Great Debate, first published in 1967, was the first to enunciate clearly the essential elements of the research synthesis that has since been refined and confirmed by, among others, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the recent National Reading Panel. Endlessly curious, astoundingly prolific, tireless in her pursuit of the truth and her capacity to propagate it through her many students and disciples, passionate in her commitment to the effective education of children (especially disadvantaged youngsters), Jeanne Chall embodied superb research skills and a rare sense of how to turn scholarship into practice. We’re deeply grateful for her contribution, and we miss her.
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation is a private foundation that supports research, publications, and action projects in elementary/secondary education reform at the national level and in the Dayton area. Further information can be obtained from our web site (www.edexcellence.net) or by writing us at 1627 K Street, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20006. (We can also be e-mailed through our web site.) This report is available in full on the Foundation’s web site, and hard copies can be obtained by calling 1-888-TBF-7474 (single copies are free). The Foundation is not connected to or sponsored by Fordham University.
Chester E. Finn, Jr., President
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
Washington, DC
Tags: reading, whole language