Public school teachers lack the ability and resources to teach kids how to read, according to one former teacher who’s spearheading a new literacy initiative in Madison.
Iris Patterson taught at the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) for ten years before throwing in the towel. She doesn’t think it’s possible to teach kids how to read in today’s public school system.
“Teachers haven’t been taught the right curriculums, and the right skills, and the right pathways to lead kids on their journey towards being a successful reader,” Patterson told Channel 15 News.
Patterson now works at the Goodman Community Center and is in charge of the START Literacy Initiative. The program is designed to help MMSD students achieve proficiency in reading. It is already reporting some success stories. Key to that success is its small army of employees and volunteers. Each student gets three adults to encourage and coach them along the way.
This resource intensive approach might raise some questions about Patterson’s methods. Her philosophy raises many others. For example, Patterson says you shouldn’t read to a child unless you know exactly what you’re doing.
“There’s a lot of things that you can do to harm kids when you’re reading a book next to them if you don’t know the science behind it,” Patterson said.
Patterson has been on MacIver’s radar for a while now. She was a key participant in a MMSD anti-racism workshop in 2021, where she promoted some rather odd ideas. Patterson advocated for allowing students to select their own curriculum and teach themselves in small groups. She also railed against keeping classes on a schedule. The moderator, LaVar Charleston, called that “phenomenally innovative and truly anti-racist.”
Despite this baggage, Patterson might be onto something when it comes to the public school system’s ability to teach children how to read (or anything useful for that matter). Dismayed by Wisconsin students’ consistently dismal test scores, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) overhauled testing standards last year. It lowered the standards and introduced new performance categories.
As a result, test scores jumped this year dramatically. Reading proficiency increased from 39.2% to 51.1%. Math proficiency increased from 41.1% to 53.1%. Those short-term gains come with long-term consequences. Changing standards prevents educators from identifying trends, which undermines their ability to make improvements and eliminate deficiencies in the educational system. In other words, educators will not be able to assess their effectiveness in the classroom for years.
In the meantime, parents would be wise to seek out alternatives to public education, such as special tutoring programs like the one Iris Patterson is promoting. However, despite what Patterson says, reading to your children probably wouldn’t hurt either.
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