“Reforms have so far lacked the top-down oversight common to the Southern success stories.
Some of her fifth-graders struggle to read.
“I’m having to backfill more and teach to lower standards,” she says. Spelling is “always a struggle,” and some children aren’t able to read materials on their own, so she often reads aloud.
During a recent lesson, however, as Scherer read to them from Richard Blanco’s story “The First Real San Giving Day,” she noticed that for the first time in years, her students seemed to follow what was going on. A new reading curriculum her school system began implementing last year is taking hold.
“Our school started last year,” Scherer says, and these fifth-graders “know things that I didn’t think that they were going to.”
The curriculum came late for these students; they had already missed years of critical phonics-based instruction. But in another way, they’re lucky: As districts across the state and region have allowed student learning to suffer over the last decade, theirs has seen a renewed commitment to the quality education New England once expected for all its students.
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Did taxpayer funded Wisconsin DPI Superintendent Underly Juice Test Scores for Reelection?
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Madison taxpayers have long supported far above average (now > $25,000 per student) K-12 tax & spending practices. This, despite long term, disastrous reading results.
Madison Schools: More $, No Accountability
The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery…
The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic”
My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous Reading Results
2017: West High Reading Interventionist Teacher’s Remarks to the School Board on Madison’s Disastrous Reading Results
Madison’s taxpayer supported K-12 school district, despite spending far more than most, has long tolerated disastrous reading results.
“An emphasis on adult employment”
Wisconsin Public Policy Forum Madison School District Report[PDF]
WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators
Friday Afternoon Veto: Governor Evers Rejects AB446/SB454; an effort to address our long term, disastrous reading results
Booked, but can’t read (Madison): functional literacy, National citizenship and the new face of Dred Scott in the age of mass incarceration.
When A Stands for Average: Students at the UW-Madison School of Education Receive Sky-High Grades. How Smart is That?