"Reading Don't Fix No Chevys': Literacy in the Lives of Young Men

Radical Teacher, Spring, 2004 by Sondra Cuban

Garan uses a question-and-answer format, with real-life examples in the book to explain her points and argue her case. She ends her book with the words of a kindergarten teacher who writes, "I love teaching and I love children, but I am tired. I am exhausted from trying to fight standards, and programs, and curriculum changes that are based on some political agenda imposed on children in the name of scientific research based standards. As a kindergarten teacher, I am personally tired of being asked to teach to standards mandated as a "quick fix" by people who are not teachers and who have no ideas what is best for children in the long term. This is UNREALISTIC..." (89).

In fact, challenging the NRP led Garan into a transformation, creating a stronger conviction that authentic literacy development tasks, not isolated skills, need to he assessed as outcomes for children's reading. The book itself is educational and well sequenced, and can be easily read by teachers and parents alike. She uses layperson's language to explain reading terms as well as research jargon. For example, she discuses different approaches to teaching phonics (11), and defines research terms, like "meta-analysis" (14). She scours the report for loopholes as well as strategies, reassuring teachers every step of the way that the NRP report confirms their authority, and does not in fact determine a "one best method." She, like, Coles, advocates for a "pro-choice" position (Coles, 2003, 127) on the teaching of reading, based on NRP conclusions. She also supplements her main argument by building a case for supports to children's reading, like quality literature, parental involvement, and libraries. She concludes that the reading wars no longer represent a pendulum of philosophically different educational ideas that naturally swing back and forth, but have become dangerous political weapons that can deskill and pacify both teachers and children. Garan maintains, "current state and federal mandates for education are blatantly political and shamelessly financial" (87). Her passionate plea for opposition and advocacy can create a broad-based constituency, including parents, the public, teachers, and policy makers.

For researchers and policy makers, Gerald Coles in Reading the Naked Truth, takes on both the NRP report (for its spurious, inconclusive, tapered findings) and the Bush administration, which has officially promoted it through research and legislation. In a deconstruction of the language of the NRP report to "end the wiggle room" (1) and question the studies on which it is based, he finds hidden variables, offers alternate explanations, and digs below the scientism to uncover the political girding of the study. Of the panel members, he traces the reasoning and agendas of these emblematic actors. As if he were Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, he rips the curtain from the wizard to reveal a comedy of errors. With catchy chapter headings such as "Systematic Phonics Beats Whole Language!" Coles relentlessly casts doubts on the internal and external validity of the NRP findings, which he suggests have fired up a back-to-basics campaign of the 1970s with a new right-wing face. His findings are synthesized in a chapter in Snake Oil. In this essay, he forcefully argues that the NICHD research excluded many studies and instructional methods that did not fit their agendas, combined with the use of a meta-analysis approach which contributed to the narrow, miscalculated findings that focus on phonemic awareness over other reading dimensions. Five studies illustrate these problems. Coles's analysis focuses heavily on these studies and calls particular attention to categorical misnomers in them under such rubrics as "causation vs. correlation," "the missing control group," and "training compared to what?" He also considers what is missing from the conversation on reading, including the need for libraries, classroom size, drop out rates, writing, educational success beyond the 3rd grade, and why silent reading instruction gains were not emphasized more. Coles especially challenges the efficacy of the control groups, the use of distorted "whole language" and reading recovery instruction, the overestimated review of 100,000 studies, and asks why phonemic awareness rather than comprehension was emphasized in the study. He makes clear that the current testing emphasis measure skills and behaviors, rather than reading.