From: mtaranto@panix.com (Mark Taranto)
Subject: Re:  decline in SAT scores very little genetic
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 06:50:08 GMT
Organization: The Inner Clique



lynx@surrey.amigans.gen.nz (Lynsey Gedye) writes:

>  Maybe the best method to increase the SAT scores (IMHO) will be for
>  individual parents to insist that a reading recovery programme be
>  introduced to the junior school attended by your child.

>  The Reading Recovery Programme is perhaps New Zealand's most influential
>  and valuable export - valuable to others, I doubt if it's earned NZ
>  a cent.  It's a programme where six year olds are tested for reading
>  ability and then action taken immediately if standards are low.

>  The success rate is spectacular.  I believe that some schools/states
>  have picked up on the programme in the USA, and also in Australia and
>  the UK.  The UK has been somewhat slow because they (politicians), 
>  although they freely acknowledge the merit and success of the RRP,
>  figure it's cheaper to have adults who can't read than it is to have
>  children who can.

>  I do volunteer work helping teach adults to read.  The RRP is so
>  successful here in NZ that I'd expect many of us involved in teaching
>  adults to read will be redundant in the next decade.  I hope so.

Admirable work.

What Lynsey says about testing early and taking action makes sense.  
I've heard a bit about the reading programs based on the New Zealand 
model, and wonder if this is the same program I've heard about.

I heard a lot about the NZ program when I got married and moved to Westchester
county, NY.  My wife was on the school board in the town where we lived, and
this program was being used.  Parents were up in arms about it.  The school
district is one of the ten best in the US, and test scores are consistently
high.  There is a battery of tests given to fourth graders each year.

The first set of fourth graders which had been taught using only the new 
system had the lowest test scores of any fourth grade class in the school 
district's history, and were substantially below the norm for New York state.

The problem was that the method that was taught stressed things other
than those which were traditionally taught, and which were tested in
the statewide test.  The people running the program claimed that the
program was successful -- but parents were upset that their children were
not being taught certain grammatical rules or any spelling.  Administrators
were caught off guard -- knowing that the school district's performance on 
test scores was important to keep up the rating of the school district.

My view of it is that there are similarities between this method and 
what happened with New Math.  That is, it might be a better way for 
some children to learn the topic, it stresses the conceptual rather than
the rote.  But it does it at the expense of skills which many people
consider to be important.  My own feeling is that the best way to 
approach teaching arithmetic to young children is to blend the old and the
new methods.  Similarly, my impression was that a blending of methods
in the teaching of reading and writing ought to be considered.

From what I've heard about the program, I can certainly see why it would 
work well with adults.  Perhaps Lynsey can tell us more?

Mark







  
--
           lynx@surrey.amigans.gen.nz    lynx@amigans.gen.nz


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