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augie_wartooth t1_jd2mwwc wrote

Reply to comment by RVADoberman in School board set to rename 4 Richmond schools by Charlesinrichmond

It’s incredibly myopic to think that RPS can just snap its fingers and put in more resources and suddenly a generation-long problem is solved. Does that mean they couldn’t do better? Certainly not. But the thing hobbling them is not renaming some schools.

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RVADoberman t1_jd2nizu wrote

Stawman much? Nobody said they could snap their fingers. They need to change their approach to teaching, especially moving back to the proven phonics-based programs for reading. Adding more resources is not going to help a failed approach, and they are not willing to revisit it.

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augie_wartooth t1_jd2o8w9 wrote

How is that a strawman? This IS a generations-long problem thanks to No Child Left Behind and standardized testing and underfunding of schools. Complain to the Virginia Department of Education about their standards of learning if you want to make a difference.

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RVADoberman t1_jd2oslx wrote

RPS could switch to phonics next year and reading would improve. That has been proven in other urban school districts.

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dalhectar t1_jd2pkpk wrote

You can tell who has little experience in K12 education.

Phonics is a major component of current Virginia SOLs and is taught across the state. If you have kids & you actually review the work they do, talk with their teacher, and are involved with their homework- you'll see them do both sight words & phonics.

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RVADoberman t1_jd2v4vh wrote

I review their work and I also pay for a private OG tutor. I have 2 dyslexic grade school students and have (unfortunately) learned a lot about how reading is taught in public schools. For example, Fountas and Pinnell calls itself phonics based but is not as effective as Science if Reading.

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dalhectar t1_jd3cpxe wrote

I feel like my kid gets more of a phonics background in part due to her IEP, vs kids who don't have IEPs.

Even though I see some phonics based instruction in both classroom & IEP, I see a more phonics based focus coming from what me daughter's IEP teacher gives her vs the classroom. When it comes to Balanced Learning programs like Fountas and Pinnell, because there's both whole language & phonics elements, its the practice in the classroom which determines where the focus is. They teach kids to sound out unfamiliar words, then go back and consider the whole sentence to understand if it makes sense in context.

Science of Learning isn't a specific program, comparing Science of Learning to Fountas and Pinnell is like comparing Greek food to Vegan food. Greek could be vegan, and vegan doesn't have to be Greek.

> The science of reading is not a literacy method in and of itself. Rather, it is the existing body of knowledge about how we learn to read. This body of evidence proves again and again that nearly every child can learn to read with confidence, given explicit instruction in the components of reading.

One way of modeling those reading components is Scarborough's reading rope. Fountas and Pinnell uses all of this, and yet there's criticism of Fountas and Pinnell. Curriculum criticism and review is something schools take rather seriously, it's just wonky and not in the press. Name changes are easy to digest and politically controversial, so they get news coverage. School systems have moved away from a 100% whole language curriculum, and did it while addressing any number of other issues to varying degrees of success. The school system can definitely address a building name change while the nitty gritty of curriculum gets rehashed & reviewed and teachers receive guidance based upon that curriculum review.

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PopularMedicinetoday t1_jd2zetn wrote

It's almost like people who do vague complaints also give vague solutions when pushed to explain. It's almost like they have no clue what they are talking about and aren't actually involved to understand the context.

Anyone who thinks RPS schools haven't gotten better in the last 3, 5, 10, etc. years is just making noise. I'm actually quite shocked as how much of an improvement we have seen... but nothing can be done overnight.

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"ThEy ShoULd JuSt Do tHiS ThiNg I rEcOmMenD!!" are the same type of people who show up to school board meetings and stifle the entire process. Complainers get involved when it makes them feel good...they show up to a meeting, break glass, and then complain on why people have cuts on their feet from walking on glass and how "iT sHouLd bE CLeaNeD uP!!"

Don't even get me started on these types of peoples' voting history.

I'm looking at you "anti-drawing school lines equally" parents who want the perks of living in an already established "good" school district and then have the gonads and strife to complain about RPS schools not being good.

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