Frustrated by reading scores that plunged close to Americas worst, California officials are dumping “whole language” reading programmes and returning to phonics-based instruction. The state has adopted two reading programs that emphasise sounding out vowels and consonants.
While the state policy does not require all schools to use the phonics programs, there is a powerful incentive for schools to do so: they are the only two reading programmes the state will pay for.
Californian educators have seen powerful evidence that phonics-based instruction works:
The school district is now emphasising teacher training.
The shift to phonics also coincided with passage of a law mandating the end of bilingual education.
Source: Diana Jean Schemo, California Leads Chorus of Sounded-
Out Syllables, New York Times, February 9, 2002.
For text http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/09/education/09PHON.html
For more on Reading Tests & Curriculum http://www.ncpa.org/iss/edu/
FMF Policy Bulletin\20 February 2002
