I know if you read the Advocate you have probably seen this but Jim over at Schools Matter has done such a great job of putting together the Reading First chain of conflicts of interest, that I felt I just had to point it out again for those of you that might have missed it...
n 2004 there was good reason for Dr. Doug Carnine to take a lead role on the Bush-Cheney '04 National Educators for Bush Steering Committee. The re-election of W. would mean a continuation of the Carnine mission to return reading instruction to the bygone era of phonics fixation and testing--and to solidify that mission by pushing through educational research requirements that can only be efficiently fulfilled by amassing large quantitative databases.
Indeed, a second Bush term would mean the chance for Carnine to build a sprawling empire of consulting and research expertise among his colleagues at the University of Oregon and beyond...
...Here are the other members on that very important and exclusive group who decided among themselves the fate of 900 million dollars a year in federal grants for the Reading First Initiative. One may note the prominence on the Committee of the University of Oregon colleagues of Doug Carnine:
Team Leader: Dr. Edward J. Kame'enui, University of Oregon
Dr. David Francis, University of Houston
Dr. Lynn Fuchs, Vanderbilt University
Dr. Roland H. Good, III, University of Oregon
Dr. Rollanda O'Connor, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Deborah C. Simmons, University of Oregon
Dr. Gerald Tindal, University of Oregon
Dr. Joseph Torgesen, Florida State University
But I digress! Good's and Kaminski's real gravy train is not in training sessions, however important they may be in developing new disciples who will preach the DIBELS message. By far the real money is in the DIBELS materials marketed by Sopris West, a company whose catalog focuses on materials that help eduational customers to "better manage behavior" of those "tough to teach student." (Remember the tough ones that Carnine's direct instruction spinoff outfit prepares teachers to deal with)?
Then he goes on to list all the books that they sell. This is a scam of the first order. Reading First-NCLB -- the scam within the scam.
anti nclb
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
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For 30 or more years the fed Dep of Ed has been a wholey owned subsidiary of the NEA. Constructivist math, language and reading programs were funded and promoted without question. Gleefully you point out how are 4th graders are near the top of the world in these skills, but never point out that by graduation they are near the bottom. The real corruption here is what your curriculum theories have done to this country. I challenge you to go into any public school and ask to see wrting samples from a few classes of 5th, 8th and high-schoolers. Take a good long look at what you have done to them.
You have had your turn and you have failed. You have destroyed the ability of a generation's worth of kids to read and write with proper structure and lucidity.
THAT my dear friend, is the true corruption.
Miller
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