It’s always wonderful to read about a neighborhood public school where the children thrive, the community pitches in, and the teachers and administrators go above and beyond to make the school a success.
Last fall, the Philadelphia Inquirer profiled such a school: Lingelbach Elementary in Germantown. Test scores were up beyond expectation, behavior problems down. Much of the school’s success was attributed to the implementation, two years ago, of a reading curriculum based on the increasingly popular Science of Reading (SOR) movement, one that uses a phonics-based approach rather than reading immersion and balanced literacy. Many of the school’s staff were enthusiastic about the new reading program. The Inquirer’s editorial board, which rarely comments on district governance or policies, now weighed in on the best teaching methods, writing that the phonics-based approach would “pay dividends far more than just the city’s schools” and credited the district with “laying the foundation for a stronger city.”
It’s clear, though, that a number of factors have contributed to success at Lingelbach. The school’s newly organized Friends of LIngelbach, one of whose members is a retired regional superintendent and former Penn professor of education, has raised funds for resources including academic supports. Grants from non-profits have paid for nature lessons in the early grades, along with a new playground, a forest classroom with zIpline, and a playhouse. One fourth-grade teacher had half of her thirty-five students transferred to another class when the school gained another teacher. Lingelbach’s demographics shifted.
Over the past twenty plus years, there have been many spikes in test scores touted as “miracles”. States from Tennessee to Texas to Maryland all cited some miracle that occurred as a result of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) laws that privatized public schools, mandated all-encompassing standardized testing, and replaced teacher-crafted lessons with scripted curricula. Initial spikes in test scores were held up as proof of the success of those measures; not surprisingly, there were no press releases or parades when that bubble burst. In 2011, a 50% spike in reading scores at Philadelphia’s Roosevelt Middle School was celebrated by Superintendent Arlene Ackerman as our own miracle–that is until the school’s principal was investigated as part of the district-wide cheating scandal.
A number of education advocates have expressed their skepticism about the wonders of the Science of Reading curriculum and have issued warnings about the credibility of its backers, including wealthy and powerful school choice funders. One SOR backer, Bill Gates, not long ago lobbied successfully to have the Common Core standards mandated in districts in all 50 states. Is Gates now pushing SOR because Common Core turned out not to be the answer to the country’s literacy issues?
Educator and writer Thomas Ultican questions the enthusiastic endorsement of SOR by Laurene Powell Jobs, CEO of Amplify, which he refers to as a “kids-at-screens enterprise”. Ultican warns that the narrative of SOR backers, without adequate research, has resulted in legislatures in several states passing laws that not just implement the SOR curricular but actually “make it against the law to disagree” with SOR methods, claiming “other forms of instruction cause children harm.” Peter Green, Pennsylvania teacher and writer, reports that the SOR law passed in Indiana enacts strict mandates that require districts to adopt certain teaching techniques while actually forbidding others. Special education and early childhood expert Nancy Bailey asks when it became the norm for children to learn to read in kindergarten; not all children learn at the same age or at the same rate. Most importantly, young children learn through play, not drill and flash cards.
The educators, parents and community members who work to make their children’s schools better deserve praise and appreciation. The district should support any school community trying to emulate that success by restoring to every school the resources that work, no matter the current pedagogy or ideology, including kindergarten aides, support staff and counselors, and Certified Teacher Librarians in fully functioning school libraries.
Lisa Haver is a former Philadelphia middle school teacher. She is a co-founder and coordinator of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools (appsphilly.net).
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