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To the Editor:
Re “Pandemic Has Pulled Reading Skills Down Into ‘New Territory’” (news article, March 9):
The alarming reading statistics that have emerged during the pandemic present an opportunity to overhaul reading curriculum and teacher preparation programs in our school systems.
Even before the pandemic, reading scores were poor, with a majority of students reading below proficient levels. Beyond the personal tragedy of not learning to read, it is particularly dangerous for democracy and a free society to have a generation of poor readers.
This is a wake-up call to get serious and follow the science of reading. Most children need explicit direct instruction to learn how to read. Devoting a period a day to phonics and spelling gives young children, grades K to 3, the foundation they need.
Phonics is the Rosetta Stone. It is how we learn to decode the shapes on the page and turn them into words. Comprehension strategies are important, but no matter how effective they may be for good readers, they don’t work if you can’t read the words in front of you.
Right now too many children are on shaky ground, and as they progress in school their poor reading skills prevent them from reading more complex material, and a cascade of trouble follows.
Schools need to make big changes fast. Schools don’t need open-ended vague reading programs that ask teachers to make it up as they go. Reading needs to be taught systematically, and teachers need training. The majority of teachers want the training, so they can do their jobs effectively.
The children can’t wait. This is the time. We know how to do this. The science is there, so what are we waiting for?
Mary Beth Crosby Carroll
Brooklyn
The writer is a retired reading specialist at the New York City Department of Education.
To the Editor:
Yes, there was a loss of learning time for students these last two years. But much of the conversation around “learning loss” misses the mark. Instead, let’s focus on making our education system more engaging, personalized and future focused — so young people feel supported and loved.
The South Bronx Community Charter High School is one example of a school that embodies these characteristics — where each student has access to an adviser, and where students move ahead when they’ve mastered content, not when they’ve reached a certain birthday or sat in a classroom for a certain amount of time.
For decades, fewer than half of U.S. students have read at grade level. It’s 2022, yet our education system is still designed in a factory-like model, culling and sorting students.
Ringing alarmist bells about learning loss seems to place the blame on students — so many of whom have experienced trauma over the last few years, yet have shown resilience.
Let’s start by redesigning our system based on what we know about how students learn best — engaged in relevant learning experiences.
By simply focusing on catching students up, we fail to examine the problematic ways we’re measuring progress and delivering instruction. Let’s move the conversation from “loss” to learning that meets students where they are and gives every child the opportunity to thrive any time, any pace, any path and any place.
Susan Patrick
Arlington, Va.
The writer is the president and chief executive at the Aurora Institute, an education nonprofit.
To the Editor:
It’s “alarming” but hardly surprising; just ask any teacher. Your article resonated with me and many of my teacher friends. As a reading specialist in an urban school in East Hartford, Conn., I have witnessed firsthand the tragedy that Covid has inflicted upon our students.
When we returned to school in the fall of 2020, I suggested to my administration that I work exclusively with grades 1 and 2, when kids learn to read. I was the sole reading teacher in a school of 450 students, with a hybrid schedule that allowed me to see 45 students a week.
Some of my students showed growth — even as much as two years — but those who would have been struggling in a “normal” year fell further behind. Research shows that it is unlikely they will ever get to grade level. And let’s not forget the students in grades 3, 4 and 5 who didn’t get any reading intervention.
This scenario happened all over the country. A crisis in urban education is upon us. Leaders at the state and university levels need to figure out what to do about it. The future of this country depends on it.
Patti Hoppin
West Hartford, Conn.
‘Scientific Discovery Is About the Journey, Not the Destination’
To the Editor:
Re “In Covid Dilemmas, No Simple Answers From Science” and “Ben Franklin’s Vaccine Lessons” (The Morning, Feb. 12 and March 3):
David Leonhardt’s newsletter articles struck an especially resonant chord for me, a scientist studying cytokine storm for four decades. Scientific discovery is about the journey, not the destination.
Research flows from asking questions, to analyzing data, to creating theories. It gathers new information and repeats the process. Even when the answer emerges, it is never completely “final,” and a new theory or a new clinical trial result will offer a new interpretation.
In the last two years, ideas for new vaccines and therapies for Covid have been summarily dismissed on dogmatic grounds. This undermines the scientific process and harms everyone.
At Northwell Health, we have enrolled more than 2,000 patients and counting in numerous clinical trials for Covid. This is a difficult and expensive process, but it is necessary to produce new knowledge to help those who most need it.
Condemning any given approach for “not following the science” before answers from clinical trials robs all of us from having new data, and new answers. The politicization of science we have seen during the pandemic is a dangerous side effect.
Kevin J. Tracey
Manhasset, N.Y.
The writer is president of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health.
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March 20, 2022 at 10:30PM
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Opinion | ‘The Children Can’t Wait’: A Better Path to Reading - The New York Times
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