When I got these kids at the beginning of the year, they couldn't read anything. Now, they are on the 2nd grade level. But she believes that any program would be effective with the same amount of training and resources that Houston is expending. Schools are not required to adopt a commercial program, Hunter, the district's reading manager, says. They need only incorporate the six required components into their classrooms in a systematic way.
Administrators here point to recent research as providing the basis for that philosophy.
They point to one study in particular, which was conducted in another Houston district and sparked national controversy last year. The study, underwritten by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and published in the March issue of the Journal of Educational Psychology , found that explicit, systematic phonics instruction led to higher word-recognition skills among poor 1st and 2nd graders than methods that teach phonics less directly. They say the findings are proof that phonics is the best way to teach children to read. But that interpretation has led to oversimplification and widespread misinformation about the findings, says Foorman, who has been surprised at how her research has been used as ammunition in the reading wars. I was amazed at the attention we got.