Steubenville became a model of reading success. Then a new law in Ohio put it all at risk. In this episode, we look at the "science of reading" lists some states are making, why the program Steubenville has been using for 25 years isn't getting on many of these lists, and the surprising power of one curriculum review group.Read: Christopher Peak on EdReportsRead: Transcript of this episodeCall us: (612) 888-7323Email us: [email protected]: Support our journalism More: soldastory.orgDive deeper into Sold a Story with a multi-part email series from host Emily Hanford. We’ll also keep you up to date on new episodes. Sign up at soldastory.org/extracredit.
Chapter 1: Why is Steubenville's reading program at risk?
I've gotten a lot of emails from listeners since Sold a Story first came out. I have a fat file folder full of actual letters, too, sent in the mail. One of these letters came from Matt Huffman. At the time, he was president of the Ohio State Senate. The letter is three handwritten pages. Huffman said he was, quote, invigorated after listening to the podcast.
He could see there was a problem with how reading was taught, and he wanted to fix it. He wasn't the only one.
Ohio had a lot of people who listened to our podcast.
This is my co-reporter, Christopher Peek.
I got a call just a couple months after Sold a Story came out from one of the top education officials saying all the executives in the department were listening to Sold a Story and they want to do something about it.
A few weeks after Chris got that call, the governor gave his state-of-the-state address.
I'm calling for a renewed focus on literacy. He's saying a big proposal is coming. We're going to make changes to how reading is taught in Ohio.
Two weeks later, legislators introduced a bill.
And this bill says the department has to come up with a list of programs that are aligned with the science of reading.
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Chapter 2: How did Ohio's new reading law come about?
It's a pretty new organization. It's a nonprofit, and it's only 10 years old, and it's already built up a lot of clout by billing itself as a kind of consumer reports for curriculum.
So what exactly does Ed Reports do?
They review curriculum. Teams of teachers actually do the reviews. They review not just reading curriculum, but math and science curriculum too. And they rate it. It's a red, yellow, and green system. So if you're a publisher, you want an all green rating from Ed Reports. Nearly 2,000 school districts have used its reviews to make their purchasing decisions.
And the organization says 40 publishers have actually adjusted their products in response to an Ed Reports review. This is bigger than just the new state list. EdReports was having a big influence on the publishing industry before SodaStory and the current conversation about the science of reading.
And it turns out there's a bit of a disconnect here, right? EdReports wasn't set up with the science of reading in mind.
No, it was set up with something else in mind, something called the Common Core State Standards.
48 states have now joined a nationwide partnership to develop a common set of rigorous, career-ready standards in reading and math.
Common Core was a thing during the Obama administration. It was an effort to raise education standards across the country. The goal was to make sure students in different states were learning the same core skills. But it ran into the same kind of problem that George W. Bush's big education effort ran into.
Publishers were saying their programs were aligned to the Common Core, just like publishers were saying their programs were scientifically based during reading first.
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Chapter 3: What is the controversy around the reading lists?
What emerged during my phone calls was a portrait of how complicated and delicate implementing a new program can be. I talked to Jennifer Hansen. She's the English language arts specialist for Geary County Schools in Kansas. She says Success for All worked better for some schools than it did for others.
They weren't always seeing the same results. What was going on?
So this district includes a military base, and the teaching staff turns over a lot. Jennifer Hansen told me they get about 100 new teachers a year.
Wow, that's a lot.
Yeah, that's like 15% of their teachers. She says there was inconsistency in how different schools and different teachers were using Success for All. Eventually, a new superintendent came in and decided it was time for a new program. And they looked to Ed Reports to decide what that should be.
On Ed Reports, they had to be all green. If there was an area that they were not green in, we didn't even look at them or have them come and talk to us.
Another reminder of how influential Ed Reports has become.
Yeah. And something else that came up was how Success for All groups kids for reading instruction. Remember, kids get grouped by ability instead of grade level. Several people I talked to said they had a tough time making that work. They said kids who were behind weren't catching up, and the schools ultimately gave up on Success for All because they couldn't get enough kids up to grade level.
I talked to the folks in Steubenville about that. They said that was a challenge for them at first, too, that it took a couple of years for them to really figure out how to group kids and monitor them and get the tutoring right. But now it's a rare exception when a child is still behind by the end of third grade.
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