Blind Republicans

Mary Ann over at Learning the Language has a couple posts that should be generating some conversation.  First was "Republicans See English as the 'Official Language'"  They do know that is just like the Tom Tomorrow cartoon that shows then designating the Sun as our source of heat and light, don't they?  They get Orwellian with this, "...we support the English First approach and oppose divisive programs that limit students' future potential."  Even Mary Ann, an expert on these matters, has no idea where this "English First" nonsense came from.  It sure sounds like they mean bilingualism is bad, doesn't it?

Today she has "What's the Proper Role for English in the USA?"  Turns out some nitwit unfortunately named John Lillpop thinks "...Hispanics and other advocates of bilingual mumbo-jumbo are so blinded to reality?"  They're not blinded John, you are.  I was going to sum this up, but as usual Stephen Krashen already has:

Mr. Lillpot is badly misinformed. Everybody agrees that acquisition of English is essential. That's why we need bilingual education. Study after study shows that children in bilingual programs do better on tests of English reading than children in all-English immersion programs.  Bilingual education works because it uses the child's first language in a way that accelerates second language acquisition.

Of course, maybe I have this "English First" idea from the Republicans all wrong.  Perhaps they mean they're pushing some new financial incentive and providing more funds for English Language Learning, hiring more teachers and providing the curriculum and meeting space for adults as well as school children.  If they want our new citizens to learn English, that certainly makes sense.

My Adventures In Blogworld

I'm starting graduate school to become a School Library Media Specialist (although I much prefer the old "librarian" tag) and was considering shelving the blog. Then I start getting comments from people like Doug Johnson, Nancy Flanagan, Mathew Needleman, L. from the lovely Jacket Whys, george w., an inspiring one from Dana Hunter, many inspiring ones from Mary Lee, and even one from the man himself, Dr. Stephen Krashen! And everyone else on my "Linky Love" list of folks who link to me or help me out with comments.


If that wasn't cool enough Ms-Teacher handed my off a blog award and put me on a link of teacher tips today: check it out, there's some good stuff there.



Merlin, an awesome blogger himself, has a post up today on what makes a blog good and it's so goofy and personal that it is inspiring to me. I often worry that I don't have a proper "niche". I'm not a 'kidlitosphere' blog, but I sometimes write about kids books (and everything else I'm reading). I'm not a 'classroom blog' but I will sometimes write about things going on at school. I don't consider this a skeptical blog' but critical thinking informs everything I'm about and I can't help applying it to everything else: education, reading, teaching, learning, getting stuff done.


Lately, though, all of my biggest obsessions are kind of coming together because of this new career path I'm taking. A school librarian is all about reading and critical thinking. They're obviously concerned about what goes on in classrooms and in education. They encourage skeptical thinking. They like to play around with the cutting edge of technology and help students and teachers embrace these new tools. They're obviously concerned about First Amendment issues. They have a lot to get done and are always looking for tips and tricks to help themselves and others. They are me, I am them. We are the ninjas in the library.


Thank you all and stay tuned. It may get sporadic and jump around like grease on a hot griddle, but I'll stay here and I can't wait to hear more from all of you.

Laetrile and Open Court

Stephen Krashen follows the evidence and notices something peculiar. Laetrile used to be prescribed to fight cancer but after studies showed that it couldn't be proven effective, it is now illegal. Now that studies have proven that the Open Court Reading program also could not be proven effective, why is it still required in some districts?

Matt has some more on this.

*yellow text is edited as per comments (one from Dr. Krashen himself!)

Five Things Policymakers Ought to Know

I've been tagged by kiri8 via Nancy Flanagan (who I teased back in May) with a new meme. I'm not a big meme fan, but this is meatier than most, so I'll give it a shot.

What do I wish the policymakers understood?

1. Books and media centers count. Educational research is a tough cookie to crack as we all know. There are too many variables and teacher buy-in is more important than is often taken into account. Yet some of the best and most reliable education research shows that the more books in the media center (and the more qualified the media specialist) the better the students do in reading, writing, spelling, everything. We don't need more computers or video games or smart boards or any of it--especially at the elementary level. We need more books and time to read them.

2. Grades--not so much. The Science Goddess has the goods on this, but it just makes sense. Rubrics and standards work. Grades mean next to nothing, especially at the elementary level. I went to a college without grades and I turned out ok (insert joke here). This will be hard to change but it can be done and I've seen it done. In the meantime just more sensible grading and grading reform would be a big help.

3. Accountability is good--standardized tests, not so much. I'm not saying all standardized tests are evil. I give the ACCESS test for my ESOL students and it is pretty good actually. The NAEP test has some great data. But we have a "testing window" that is eating up more time and money than you would imagine. It is affecting instructional time and the results are not always even used well. A lot of test publishing companies are getting rich off of things we don't really need. As Stephen Krashen says, just weighing the animal more often doesn't make it grow any faster.

4. Get educator input. Science Goddess already mentioned also mentioned no unfunded mandates and I'm with her on that. While you're at it, get more actual educator input on decisions. We had a county in Georgia that was trying to buy laptops for all of its students. There are some policymakers that must have just thought it would be cool or something. Like computers mean knowledge somehow. I don't know what they were thinking and it sure wasn't a teacher's idea. Teachers would have said, less portable classrooms, smaller schools, more books, less interference. Listen to what they have to say--some of them even know a thing or two.

5. More local control. In my humble opinion the feds would have nothing to say except that public schools are mandatory and the only thing they would get to decide is how much money the states got for education. Maybe some general standards. Same with the state government. They would be working on finding a more equitable way for the schools in their great states to get funding and that would be about it. The rest of the decision-making would be at the local level. Of course I'd like to see more and smaller school districts as well. I'm not sure how much bigger and smaller classroom sizes affect things. I am sure small schools and school districts are a good thing.

A pass this meme onto ms_teacher, Doug at the Blue Skunk Blog, and Library Stew because I'm pretty sure they'll have some interesting and different perspectives. Tag, you are it.

Krashen on NYT Reading

There's been a lot of talk in the blogs lately about this article in the NYTimes about the internet and reading. I think an overuse of the net may cause issues with attention, but not reading. I myself have recently axed Facebook, Goodreads and most other social networking sites. I've also probably halved my feeds in my reader. Im trying to stay focused on school and upcoming graduate work.

Here's Stephen Krashen's more sober take on the internet/reading issue:

In "Literacy debate: On R U Reading?" (July 27, Books), Dana Gioia, chair of the
National Endowment for the Arts, thinks that there has been a decline in reading
ability and it is because of the internet. There has been no decline. National
reading scores for 4th and 8th graders have increased since 1992, and 12th
graders have dropped five points since 1992, not much on a test in which the top
and bottom 10% differ by 90 points. So far, studies suggest that internet reading
results in more print reading and improved reading ability, as the Times
notes. The real problem is low literacy attainment among children from low-income
families, which research shows is related to lack of access to reading material.
Let's stop worrying about the internet and start worrying about improving
libraries in areas of high poverty. --Stephen Krashen

Kill Reading First

Stephen Krashen has an opinion piece in today's USA Today.

Read, comment, share.

End the Education Budget Crisis

Here's an easy fix. Peter Schmidt has proven that "State High-School Exit Tests do Not Improve Academic Achievement." Here's the link.

If a Governor is interested in long-term solutions to their budget crisis, a reasonable plan is to cut and even eliminate expenses for items that don't do any good.

Start with the High School Exit Exam! California spends about $250 million each year just for remedial instruction for this exam, and millions more for administration and scoring. Recent research done by scholars at Indiana University has shown that state high school exit exams do not lead to more college completion, higher employment, or higher earnings by graduates. Researchers at the University of California Davis and the University of Minnesota have reported that exit exams do not result in improved academic achievement. In fact, researchers have yet to discover any benefits of having a High School Exit Exam.

Dumping this needless exam would save a billion dollars every few years, and might inspire similar steps for additional savings.

Ka-Ching!

(tip to sdkrashen's mailing list)

Obama and Bilingualism

In the Washington Post, Mr. Obama was quoted on some thoughts regarding bilingual education. In this blog post, Stephen Krashen adds his thoughts and comes up with a better definition of what bilingual education is (even though most folks seem to see it as the exact opposite):

"Bilingual education is a method of using the child’s first language to accelerate English language development."

What can we do to clarify this position?

Empty Library Shelves

This article in the Austin-American Statesman shows what can happen when we forget the point of school. We're trying to foster good citizens here and one of the most important tools is a whole big pile of books to help the students gain some background knowledge about the world.

Even if you think, like Dolores Umbridge did in harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, that "a theoretical knowledge will be sufficient to get you through your examinations, which after all, is what school is all about," then we still need a big pile of books for our kids to read:

They point to several studies, including one by Stephen Krashen, a University of Southern California researcher and library advocate, who found that the money spent per student on libraries was a good predictor of performance on national standardized tests.
"A number of studies have shown that children in high poverty areas go to schools with inferior school and classroom libraries, have fewer books in their homes and live in communities with inferior public libraries," Krashen said. "If it is true that Austin only spends $2 per child (at some schools), that is devastating for children in high poverty areas in the district."
Krashen's findings mirror a 2001 study by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission that showed a school's library was the second-most influential factor in student academic performance. Socioeconomic level was the first.

Multiple Measures: A Modest Proposal

You need to read this post from Dr. Krashen whether you are an administrator, teacher or parent. This is just the kind of thing we need. Can you imagine the money and frustration that would be saved? Money that could be spent in teacher training and helping needed schools.

I'll put the blog on the blogroll. Looks like one to watch.

NCLB Link

Here's an article of interest. Scroll down to read the comments by two professors, including Stephen Krashen.

A Review of The Power of Reading

Doug Johnston has a great summary of Dr. Krashen's book and the importance of all of us taking the message to heart for teachers and especially Media Specialists.

Poverty and Access to Print

Here's a link to an article on a study predicting test scores from "environmental factors" (the home). Scroll down to Stephen Krashen's comments. Here's some of it:

Of great interest is the fact that McQuillan (The Literacy Crisis: False Claims and Real Solutions) was able to predict 71% of the variability on fourth grade NAEP scores using only poverty and access to print as predictors, and was able to predict 59% using only poverty and amount of free reading children did as predictors. (That is, knowing the poverty level and access to print (school, home, community) is 71% of the information you need to predict the NAEP score, etc.

(italics mine)

I have a field trip to the library planned this January. Stay tuned.

Reading Less? Worse? Probably Not...

Stephen Krashen (as usual) has the goods here. It's a refutation of the new NEA report, To Read or Not to Read.

Image copyright 2007 Jim Randolph.

False Claims About Test Results

Stephen Krashen is keeping them honest. Or at least exposing the dishonesty.

Spanish Speakers Do Well In English

"Some folks think that Hispanics have "no spur to learn English," in contrast to other immigrants. This accusation is unfounded. Spanish speakers do well in learning English. According to the recent census, the percentage of Spanish and Asian language speakers who speak English very well is nearly identical, for children, 73.4% of Spanish speakers and 72.7% of Asian language speakers. For adults, the percentages are 47.5% and 50.8% respectively. Studies confirm that those in Spanish-speaking families who came to the US before school age or were born here generally speak English better than they do Spanish by the time they are in high school or even earlier, and 70% of third and later generation Hispanics speak only English. Polls show that Spanish speakers support the acquisition of English. According to a recent Pew study, Hispanics feel more strongly about the importance of children acquiring English than other groups do. The impression that Spanish speakers do not speak English well is due to the presence of new immigrants, who have not yet had time (and often the opportunity) to acquire English to high levels. "
--Stephen Krashen

Krashen Reading First Response

Stephen Krashen (a definite teaching ninja, read The Power of Reading) has a new response to a defence of Reading First. link