Boyd Logan's List: Education: Politics

• “We wanted to make sure through funding that the higher grades weren’t given the short shrift they have had in the past,” said Jamie P. Fasteau, the vice president for federal advocacy for the alliance, referring to discussions her organization has had with congressional aides.

  • Good to see that there is allocation for people at this stage. As someone who works with many people at this stage, I find that it's an uphill battle. We need a proven method of catching these people up.
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• “In the past, Congress has invested in early literacy on the assumption that it would take care of students’ needs,” said a Democratic Senate aide. “But research shows that is not the case.” She said the federal government needs to support literacy well beyond 3rd grade to ensure students can read well enough to absorb “high-level academic content.”

  • That's the mistake. The assumption was that if they got off on the right foot with narrative texts, that would translate to more abstract, adademic texts. That isn't the case. We've got to get these kids up to speed academically with conceptual, abstract texts. Kylene Beers has some great ideas in "What to do when Kids Can't Read."
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• Mr. Shanahan pointed out that “language structure” and “meaning in context” replace the words “reading fluency” and “reading comprehension” in Reading First.

  • Great... more confusion with terminology. My students will appreciate the fact that teachers suffer from it, just like they do.
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• The Reading First program became mired in controversy over allegations that consultants benefited from sales of certain commercial reading products that they promoted to states.

  • Completely legitimate. Sometimes it feels like a complete con game where they're setting up the problem then selling us the cure to the problem. The people that make the tests also sell a nice little program that helps you pass that test. Gee... how convenient.
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