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The Marchese family wrote a letter to the Dry Creek School District School Board on August 18, 2009.  Son, Grayson, a 7th grader, is currently reading at a high 3rd grade/low 4th grade  level thanks to a Orton Gillingham tutor. Ms.Smith (not a real name) is eminently qualified and proven effective in improving Grayson's reading skills. She completed  multiple programs including educational therapy certification.  She also completed Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) , is therefore certified by reading guru Louisa Moats. Before Grayson went to Ms.Smith, he was reading at a kindergarten level after 7 years of special education teaching in Dry Creek School district.   The school board has refused to accept the fact that their staff "highly qualified" California credentialed teachers with Masters degrees in Special education have never been taught how to teach reading to dyslexic children.

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Parent Replies to "Update: Parents open letter to Dry Creek School Board"

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therose
therose September 7, 2009
Re: Update: Parents open letter to Dry Creek School Board
It has to be a change, where public education systems are made accountable regarding policy, administration and the educators through the law. Not as a mandate, or a mission statement. Accountable for the individual state of reading, writing and numeracy of the individual student, schools, boards, state and so on. Accountable by inserting an independent agency, that has the authority to make the school accountable for their literacy stats. By making the school accountable, the educators will be less likely to blame the state of Little Suzie's reading to factors that are outside the environment of school, where the focus will be on the curriculum, programs, instruction, and other education factors that has an impact on literacy. The advances and knowledge in the last 20 years on learning, has discredited much of what is currently being done at the school level. The reason being, is that much of the administration, teachers skills and school boards are operating in the same fashion as the 19th century one room school house. The focus is on the management of children, rather than the learning needs of the individual child. Where policies are designed around the educators' needs. rather than the children. It is a system where parents and their children are made to adapt to an education system, rather than the education system adapting to the individual and concerns/environments of families. In other words, families who are in need of help in the education system, must dance through all the rules and regulations, where help is given under narrowed criteria that is often based on subjective data, such as grades. How often are parents concerns of reading and writing ability are brushed aside, due to subjective reasoning on the parts of educators. Reasons such as maintaining a 50 %, behaviour problems, not focus enough, or parents not doing enough at home. The IDEA laws is another example, where it is left up to the individual parents to enforce the laws at the individual schools, but the schools can often ignore the laws, because no one above them is making sure the schools are following the IDEA laws. If the schools had consequences of ignoring the IDEA laws, parents and their children's needs would be address very quickly at the level of the classroom. A school would not want it to go further to the upper levels, where the main focus would be on the school's teachers, methods, reading programs and other things such as assessment tools. The onus would be put on the school, to prove that they have done everything to improve Little Suzie's reading ability, with the tools and resources that are at hand.
In court cases of today, it is often the parents that has the burden of proof on their backsides. It is where very subjective evidence is often used against the parents. In Canada, very few parents have won law suits. Rulings for the most part have favoured schools, based on weak evidence of actions taken by the school, to help Little Suzie. Evidence such as the teacher given Little Suzie, 10 minutes of personal instruction, 2 to 3 days of a school week. Or, a teacher combing the Internet for knowledge and applying the knowledge to Little Suzie. What is not question is the effectiveness of what the teacher or school is doing to help Little Suzie. From what I have read in the Canadian court rulings, the school just needs to prove that they are making an effort to help Little Suzie. The burden of proof, rests in the hands of the parents where parents spend most of their time defending their parent abilities, rather than their efforts in making sure Little Suzie has the basic skills needed to navigate in like.
In today's society, a very important and one of the most essential skills, is to become a good reader, writing and skilled in basic numeracy. The education system can be held accountable, by a simple measure of the literacy rate. The rising illiteracy rate in the last 20 years is rising, and our courts, schools, and society at large are not willing to take the necessary measures to decrease the illiteracy rate. Compared to countries, whose mother languages are not English, they have a much lower rate of illiteracy, because the education systems of those countries concentrate on the foundation skills of reading, writing, and numeracy in the grades of K to grade 6. They also have a much lower rate of identified learning disabilities as adults, because the children are getting the correct help at the level of K to grade 6, and by grade 7 - most if not all have overcome their learning problems. Another factor is the differences between the definitions of learning disabilities between European and North American countries. My child if in Europe, would be automatically considered dyslexic, and not LD. To be LD under the European version, a child has a development delay that affects their cognitive ability and intelligence. Most LD children in North America are dyslexic, and it is where our schools fail our children, by not providing the correct help or even keeping up-to-date on the advances being made in the dyslexic field.
As a result, our leaders and administration of the education system, come to the table with their own misconceptions, biases, and confusion. Often policy is being made for our children, where it is not based on science research, but rather on the collective whole on their personal experience, misconceptions, biases, and the lack of expertise and knowledge. Add to it, is the standard accounting practices to control costs. This is where one-sized-fits-all approaches are used, rather than using methods that takes into account the learning needs of the individual. You see throughout the system, including the text books, where it is the student that has to adapt, rather than the educators, schools, or tools that should be adapting to the individual learner. I often wonder if the health systems adapted the one-fits-all approaches, how the individual who has diabetes or another common diseases would fare out. Would a certain percentage not get treatment because they did not meet a certain criteria? Health systems do not operate in this fashion, or otherwise our citizens would be a lot sicker. It is where, even at the lowest access point, medical decisions are being made taking into account the individual's needs, as one of the priorities. If a person needs to acquire knowledge of diabetes care, it is provided without the patient requiring proof that they are in need of this knowledge. Why is it our education systems, work in the opposite way, where it is the parents and children that must dance to their tunes and demands? Accountability is lacking within our public education system, where no one is responsible for the rising illiteracy rate, the rising LD rate, and other rising concerns. Should not our highly qualified educators and those who work in the education field, be held accountable at the same level, as our highly qualified medical professionals, in relationship to services rendered and outcomes. In the case of education, reading, writing and numeracy services are link to outcomes.
The answer to your question, is courts should be the last course of action and what should be done, is a wholesale change from the bottom to the top, and from the top to the bottom. In order for that to happen, schools need to change their priorities where it is child-centered and all activities and actions are directed towards the needs of the individual child and learning abilities.The change that needs to take place is how our education systems are governed, and more so on the need to eliminate and root out subjective reasoning that often dictates policies, to be replace with objective reasoning based on sound and proven education based-research. Much like our health systems in western countries, where medical procedures change according to the medical science and research and not on subjective data such as their social-economical standing in the community.
Sorry, I went on for a long time. It is really a complicated question, with so many factors at play within the education system. The whole education system needs to be change!
spedexaminer
spedexaminer September 6, 2009
Re: Update: Parents open letter to Dry Creek School Board
Right now, court is the only way to hold schools accountable, how would you change that system?
therose
therose September 6, 2009
Re: Update: Parents open letter to Dry Creek School Board
I believe the problem, and it seems to radiate throughout North America, with or without laws is the education system and how it is administrated, along with the increasing higher standards and achievements of knowledge without and I will repeat without ensuring that all children become good readers and writers. The problem lies that close to 50 % of children have poor reading and writing skills. As a result, by grade 7, children are being written off by the school system and their schooling is downgraded where repeated a grade, streamlining students to basic or general courses and of course special education classes where for the most part are of remedial in nature. After grade 6, all students who have weak reading and writing skills, do not have the same access to special services or teachers at the level who have the knowledge and ability to help those students who have weak skills in reading and writing. Instead schools take the easy route, and it is far cheaper to streamline students into basic or general, repeating grades, and essentially writing off those students as being non-academic.
Schools, at this point where the Marchese family is are more than determine to use their resources on legal fights, in order to keep the status-quo regarding the system. The school system, and rules associating with the administration is gear to the teachers and other staff that works within, and not to the students. In my opinion, and how my own child has experience throughout the years, is that the school(s) are not held accountable in areas of reading and writing skills where about 40 % of the students have difficulty in making a pass and the real reason is poor reading and writing skills. Yet after grade 6, with or without a learning problem, we will continue to see the actions of schools where retention and court proceedings are much the preferred action, than the consequences of a ruling that favours the child, whereby and in all likelihood the cost of obtaining the trained staff will cost more than the cost of legal maneuvers.
The problem lies within the school and our teachers, the administration and instruction methodology. There has been reports, studies and research on the state of education over the years. In the last few years, reports are on the nature of the school, where the explorations is based on the reading and writing skills of our children. The latest report, coming from Canada where it is cited, that "O'Sullivan explains, "Reading, or the ability to get meaning from print, is fundamental for school success for all students. It is the golden ticket that every child in this country has a right to expect. The challenge for Canada is to raise the bar and close the gap for all of our students. Every single child is entitled to learn to read, to attain that golden ticket."

tinyurl.com/lropv7

The full report is on the next link.


tinyurl.com/lat4x7

"Only 52 per cent of the populati on over 16 years of age reads at or above a level determined to be
essenti al for living and working in modern society (Ministers Nati onal Working Group on Educati on
2002). It might be expected that older people would have lower scores than those in their 20s, but
across every jurisdicti on one-third of the group of 16- to 25-year-olds reads below that level (Human
Resources and Skills Development Canada and Stati sti cs Canada, 2005).
Although there are diff erent levels and forms of literacy, it is reading, the basic ability to get
meaning from print, that is fundamental to school success (Canadian Council on Learning 2007). It
is unacceptable for Canadian youth to att end school for 10 years or more and emerge unable to
read and write well enough to live and work in modern society. Although many students perform at
acceptable levels of reading, the challenge for Canadians is to raise the bar and close the gaps for all
our students."
For LD students, due to the inability of the public education system to concentrate on and received targeted help for their problems, they are placed at a much higher risk of failing due to the school failing at what they should be skilled at, reading and writing skills. The Marchese parents, and other parents are to be commended when they undertake legal proceedings for their children. However, all parents that are within the school's walls, should support and ensured that all children, no matter their learning ability to ensure that all children received the essential skills of reading and writing that are needed not only to navigate through school but as well as in life. Schools who choose the legal route, are schools where parents are whispering, "Thank God, it is not my child", or making remarks that are more in keeping with the teacher knows what is best for my child. I just been through it with the new principle of the high school, who is insisting to defend the school system, and in so doing either my child or I am blamed for it or her disorder is the blame for her reading and writing problems. At the same time, he will concede the school has not done enough to improve her reading and writing skills, but always with a condition that the school must follow the directives and mandates of the board. My child does not meet the criteria set out by the board, and therefore it is out of the school's hands in helping her to improve his reading and writing skills.
If parents saw their role differently where schools and the educators are held accountable for key foundation skills needed to do advance work. there would be far less fighting at the school level, and perhaps a new shift and focus to the child where basic skills are far more important, than the actual factual knowledge of the child.

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