PORTLAND — Are you the parent of a child in a public school in Maine? A teacher? Are your children struggling to learn to read? Are you wondering why?

Back in 2000, after decades of research, the National Reading Panel definitively identified five critical areas for the teaching of science-based reading:

• Phonemic awareness.

• Phonics.

• Oral reading fluency.

• Vocabulary.

• Comprehension.

Plain and simple. No more “whole language versus phonics” or “reading wars,” but a plain scientific consensus that all five of these components must be taught – a conclusion that is so well documented in the scientific literature that to question it is no different from questioning the impact of diet and exercise on cardiovascular health. And yet, our institutions of higher learning still have not changed their curricula to impart this information to new teachers. Why?

Imagine that, back in 2000, the medical community finally arrived at a clear, scientifically proven conclusion about how to treat a significant medical problem affecting up to 50 percent of the population.

Before then, there had been different schools of thought about treatment or the underlying disease, but research cleared up earlier questions and made it abundantly clear how patients should be treated. Dosages of medication might vary depending on the patient, but there was no longer any scientific doubt as to the appropriate course of treatment.

What would happen if, in the year 2012, medical schools in Maine still had not changed their curricula to provide new doctors with this information? And what if the state medical licensing board didn’t require already licensed doctors to update their training to reflect a 12-year-old body of scientific knowledge?

The logical result of my far-fetched scenario would be that thousands of Mainers would needlessly suffer because of the refusal on the part of the medical community to update its practices. Too bizarre to imagine. Preposterous.

And yet, this is exactly where we find ourselves in the state of Maine with respect to the teaching of reading and “curing” struggling readers. This month, Maine had the shame of earning a D- for its teacher training from the National Council on Teacher Quality. Our children continue to be the victims of bizarre political behavior on the part of the adults in charge.

While a new special education master’s degree program at the University of Southern Maine has apparently endeavored to step in to fill this void in teacher education, other teacher preparation programs continue to sponsor general “literacy” instruction in which teachers in training need not demonstrate the understanding of these five pillars of reading instruction.

At the University of New England, where I earned my K-8 teaching certificate 10 years ago, there is no requirement that new teachers take a course in the science of reading. No such course is even available.

A growing number of hardworking and well-intentioned teachers are scrambling to implement the new Common Core State Standards, recently adopted by the Maine Department of Education and incorporating aspects of these five critical areas.

They’re finding themselves at a loss for the time, money and resources to get proper training here in Maine. Teachers are forced to drive to Massachusetts, Vermont or New Hampshire to receive training in science-based reading instruction.

The consumers of Maine’s education system should be outraged and need to speak up loudly, clearly and with one voice.

Let our institutions of higher learning know that it is unacceptable and an outrage to continue to charge tuition to well-intentioned prospective teachers and then fail to instruct them in the science of reading, which is vital to teaching children how to read.

Year after year, thousands of children in Maine’s public schools needlessly struggle to learn to read because our colleges and universities have failed to teach their teachers how to teach. This is nothing short of a public health crisis – we all need to wake up and speak up on behalf of Maine’s children.

 

– Special to The Press Herald