Reading can change lives. “Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. … When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror,” says Rudine Sims Bishop, a former professor at Ohio State University.
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Roughly 5,650 Michigan students received reading scores low enough that they could be required to repeat third grade, according to a new report from Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC), the strategic research partner of the Department of Education and local school districts in Michigan.
The trio of third graders at Tennessee’s Trousdale County Elementary School begin working on their multiplication tables as soon as they sit down for tutoring, quietly penciling in answers. Kelsey Harris, their math tutor, reminds them that this year they will need to know how to multiply all the numbers from zero to 10.
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Everywhere in our economy, there are shortages – in skills, workers and opportunities. Employers say they can’t find the workers they need. And yet, tens of millions of workers are stuck in low-wage, low-growth jobs, with limited economic potential and little opportunity to pursue the American dream.
Some say the only answer is more robots, self-serve kiosks and other technology to replace the workers employers say they can’t find.
As a teacher in Oakland, Calif., Kareem Weaver helped struggling fourth- and fifth-grade kids learn to read by using a very structured, phonics-based reading curriculum called Open Court. It worked for the students, but not so much for the teachers. “For seven years in a row, Oakland was the fastest-gaining urban district in California for reading,” recalls Weaver. “And we hated it.”
Beyond Basics responded to Jill Barshay's work at The Hechinger Report as she highlighted the relationship between high-dosage tutoring, attendance and success. Cofounder and CEO Pamela Good's Letter to the Editor is shared in full below.
American students are slowly starting to regain academic ground lost during the pandemic, according to nationwide and state testing data compiled by Chalkbeat.
A recent editorial asks how Michigan can improve its education performance, and says a good start is to “eliminate the elected state Board of Education" ("To fix schools, first scrap state ed board," June 10, 2022).
When students get to middle and high school without strong reading skills, the results can be devastating.
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