Articles

State Reading Curriculum Draws Praise from Experts

Patti Ghezzi, AJC Staff
March 7, 2004

In their effort to update the state's reading curriculum, Georgia educators settled on a 307-page tome that includes book recommendations and children's writing samples.

"Reading & Writing, Grade by Grade" doesn't promote phonics or whole language, two teaching philosophies that have caused political uproar and battles among educators for decades. Instead, the book includes both.

It says children should learn how to sound out words based on rules -- known as phonics -- starting in kindergarten. It also expects young children to analyze literature and discuss a book's theme, concepts associated with whole language.

The proposal is not dramatically different from Georgia's existing curriculum, nor does it conflict with what already goes on inside most classrooms.

But "Reading & Writing" contains far more detail about how well kids are expected to read and write by the end of each grade.

"The new curriculum will be more specific," said Paquita Austin, an Atlanta teacher who served on the state curriculum committee. "Parents can really look at it and understand, 'OK, I see what is expected of my child.'"

Austin said parents of kindergartners might be surprised to see how much their child should know, such as recognizing at least 20 simple words and knowing the sounds of most letters, not just the ABCs.

"Kindergarten is no longer this cutesy grade that is not taken seriously," she said.

Financed by public money and private grants, the book was published in 1999 by the Washington-based National Center on Education and the Economy and the University of Pittsburgh under the name "New Standards."

Patte Barth of the Washington-based Education Trust said New Standards has a strong reputation in education circles.

"It's a very balanced approach," she said. "They very deliberately chose people who represented various positions in the so-called reading wars."

Although some states have adopted pieces of "Reading & Writing," Georgia is the first state to use the whole book, said co-author Sally Hampton, also a senior fellow at the National Center, as well as the consultant hired by Georgia to lead the curriculum adoption committee for reading and writing. New York City adopted the entire book.

The state curriculum is undergoing a massive rewrite in an effort to clarify what is expected of Georgia students. Reading is widely regarded as the foundation that determines a child's success in school.

Test scores suggest Georgia schools need direction. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading test, 41 percent of Georgia fourth-graders scored "below basic."

On Georgia's curriculum test, 20 percent of fourth-graders did not meet state standards.

Concerns over details

Hampton said Georgia teachers had concerns that "Reading & Writing" did not include enough details about how to teach young readers, especially those in kindergarten and first grades -- now the critical years for learning to read. The teachers agreed to draft a supplementary document that would address such topics, she said.

The book's purpose is to set standards, not tell teachers exactly how to teach, Hampton said.

It's up to school districts whether to use a detailed, scripted program or more flexible teaching materials.

Cindy Cupp, a former Georgia curriculum director and teacher who now markets a reading program, said she worries that "Reading & Writing" does not emphasize phonics enough in first grade.

"The focus tends to be more on literature and writing rather than teaching them to read the print on the page," she said, adding that she believes first-graders need a systematic, structured reading program.

Hampton said schools should be able to adapt any commercial program to fit with the new standards. Publishers are aware of the national emphasis on both phonics and whole language.

"New Standards" was already respected for its high school standards in English and other subjects when it waded into reading standards for young children.

The action was in response to the National Reading Panel, a Congress-appointed group assembled in 1997 to end the reading wars by sorting through research and recommending the best teaching methods. The panel issued general guidelines, but one member, Oregon teacher Joanne Yatvin, wrote a dissenting view, saying the panel didn't have time to consider the broad and uneven body of reading research.

However, when asked by the Journal-Constitution to review "Reading & Writing, Grade by Grade," Yatvin gave it high marks.

"It is certainly an improvement over the long lists of standards, tortuously phrased, put out by most states," she said. "This document reflects a realistic view of young children, what they need to know and how they learn."

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