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This is the Reading Instruction Show.

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I am your podcast host, Dr. Andy Johnson.

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Topic of today's podcast, the educational crisis is a myth.

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Or why Laura Yoon and Richard Chamberlain are woefully ignorant.

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There's a lot of yapping about school failure, usually by people with a political or for-profit

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agenda of some sort.

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And I recently read a column written by Laura Yoon at the Minneapolis Tribune describing

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an alleged failure of our schools to teach reading, to teach children how to read.

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The data upon which her conclusions were based, you asked.

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It was her observation of her first grade sons struggle to sound out a word and what

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she heard on a radio documentary.

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While these are interesting and compelling, neither is what one would consider in most

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circles anyway as valid or reliable sources in coming to conclusions about anything, much

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less something as broad as reading instruction in Minnesota schools.

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Further, Laura Yoon alleged that reading test scores are plummeting in Minnesota and that

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Minnesota's reading test scores are far below the national average, neither of which is

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true.

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Minnesota State Senator Richard Chamberlain has made similar false claims in promoting

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a for-profit teacher professional development program called Letters.

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Now, Ms. Yoon blamed something called the queuing system, which isn't really a thing

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and I'll explain that in my next podcast.

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She also blamed whole language and balanced literacy, both of which, based on her writing,

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she knows nothing about.

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But that didn't seem to get in the way of coming to a conclusion for her or assigning

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causality.

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That didn't seem to get in the way of Senator Chamberlain's need to blame teacher preparation

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programs for the alleged failure.

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Now the critiques and conclusions of Laura Yoon and Senator Chamberlain are not atypical.

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They get noted here.

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There are a lot of Laura Yoon's and Senator Chamberlain's all over the United States

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and far beyond.

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They come to conclusions based not on reliable data or actual research, but on I think isms

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and perceptions and what they want to believe or what for-profit and political entities tell

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them to believe.

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This seems to be more the norm than the exception with the school critiquers.

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But if the premise is true that schools are failing and teachers are doing a horrible

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job and professors like me are ruining America and sending our economy into decline, if that's

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true, I want to see some research based data showing said decline and I want to see some

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variables isolated.

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Show me some valid reliable, comparable data collected over time that shows that our schools

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are failing and teachers are doing a horrible job.

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Give me some solid data that indicates that our schools are worse today than they were

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five, 10, 20, or 30 years ago.

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That data should not be based on your selected memory of what you think schools were like

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once upon a time, but on some solid data with appropriate sample sizes that represent the

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population to which you are seeking to generalize and hopefully that data has been peer reviewed.

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As well that data should not be cherry picked to support your predetermined beliefs.

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Causality should not be assigned to whatever issue you seem to take exception with at the

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particular time.

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Now let's take a look at test scores.

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There are many who insist that test scores should be used to determine the quality of

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education.

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Those like Miss Ewan who claim that there's a massive decline in test scores, which isn't

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true, assign causality to the variables of their choice.

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Senator Chamberlain is the same way.

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The reason why test scores are going down so they say is because of whatever variable

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they have issue with.

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It's because of whole language or teachers unions or violence on TV or too many guns

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or too few guns or gay marriage or lack of family values or religion not in schools or

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critical race theory or lack of standards or teacher tenure or teacher preparation, whatever

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one has a particular beef with, that becomes the variable of choice, the causal factor

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for ruining public education.

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Now okay, I understand that I will never get some to think outside the standardized test

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box.

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There are those who cannot begin to conceive of determining the quality of education using

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anything other than test scores.

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I understand it's okay, all well and good.

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But if you do happen to be one of those who are clinging tightly to that test based paradigm

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with white knuckles, I'd invite you to look at the National Assessment of Educational

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Progress Data, NAEP data.

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This is collected by the National Center of Educational Statistics, which is part of the

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U.S. Department of Education.

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NAEP, often called the nation's report card, is the largest nationally representative

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and continuing assessment of what students in public and private schools in the United

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States know and are able to do in various subjects including reading, math, science,

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and writing.

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Starting in 1969, you're able to track changes occurring over time by individual states or

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nationally.

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And the same type of measure is used so you can make these comparisons.

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Now contrary to Ms. Yoon, Senator Chamberlain and other school teachers, there is no massive

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failure in our schools.

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Massive failure is a myth perpetuated by those with political and for-profit agendas.

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It's a manufactured crisis.

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Schools are doing pretty much a good job.

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Now this does not mean that we don't need to improve.

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But since 1969, most scores have been steadily rising or stayed similar.

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Go look yourself.

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Of course there have been short-term fluctuations.

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That's normal.

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And recently there's been a worldwide pandemic and massive school closings.

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These tend to have an impact on things such as student learning.

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But the online graph of educational reality has for the most part been steadily rising.

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There is no massive long-term downward trend.

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Now thus said, test scores should never be used to determine the quality of education

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students are receiving or the effectiveness of teaching.

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Test scores are not valid or reliable indicators of teaching quality.

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Good teaching is determined by, well, let me see, teaching.

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More specifically, good teaching is teaching that is good.

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Not test scores that are above average.

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And here's the thing with standardized tests representing a normal distribution of scores

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from a normal population.

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There's always going to be a bell-shaped curve.

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That means that 50% of the population is always going to be below average.

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That's what average is.

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Now this does not mean that we don't do everything we can to help each student achieve his or

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her full potential.

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But this is much different from trying to make standardized test scores go up.

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Now we want effective teachers.

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Everyone agrees with this.

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But how do you determine who is and isn't an effective teacher?

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Well let me give you a clue in case you have no.

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I would not ask Laura Yoon, Richard Chamberlain, or any political or for-profit entity.

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I will tell you.

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Effective teachers are defined by effective teaching behaviors, not test scores.

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Effective teachers are those who know and use a variety of research-based strategies

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that are adopted and adapted to meet the needs of the students in front of them, not the

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needs of Laura Yoon or Richard Chamberlain.

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As well, effective teachers have four kinds of knowledge.

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One, knowledge of subject matter.

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Two, pedagogical knowledge.

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This is knowledge of general teaching strategies.

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Three, pedagogical content knowledge.

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This is knowing how our knowledge of strategies for teaching specific content areas such as

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reading, writing, and math.

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And fourth, knowledge of learners, learning, and human development.

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This includes understanding a little bit about our learning organ, how the human brain learns.

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Now is it possible to develop adequate knowledge and skills in these four areas in three semesters

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of any teacher preparation program?

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No.

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This is why we must require and continue to push for and fund continued, valid, appropriate

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teacher professional development.

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It must be a part of maintaining one's teaching license.

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A final thing about test scores.

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There will always be fluctuations in test scores.

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That's because human beings are human beings and not standardized cogs in an educational

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machine.

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There always be fluctuations because test scores are a snapshot in time taken on a specific

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instant in time.

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And here's the thing about snapshots.

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We never know what's behind the snapshot or outside the camera lens.

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In the same way, test scores tell us nothing about context or what's behind the test scores

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are outside the lens of the standardized tests.

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So is there a crisis in education today?

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The only crisis is that which is being perpetuated on teachers and schools by state legislators

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and people with for-profit and political agendas who are outside our schools.

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We need to empower teachers to make the decisions.

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We want creative and intelligent people teaching our children.

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We must empower and enable them to be creative and intelligent.

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This has been the Reading Instruction Show with Dr. Andy Johnson.