Two Books on the "Science of Reading": Beginning to Read and the Spin Doctors of Science and Debunking the "Science of Reading" - How The Spin Doctors of Phonics Are Harming America’s Children
Two Books on the "Science of Reading"
I am writing to request your support in sharing a PDF of the 1998 book, Beginning to Read and the Spin Doctors of Science, and a synthesis paper entitled, "Two Books on the Science of Reading," which includes a detailed account of the information presented in a second book, Debunking the “Science of Reading” - How The Spin Doctors of Phonics Are Harming America’s Children.
PDF Downloads
Beginning to Read and the Spin Doctors of Science (Complete Book)
Synthesis Paper Two Books on the “Science of Reading”
Beginning to Read and the Spin Doctors of Science
First, a note about Beginning to Read and the Spin Doctors of Science. It is the book that many of the original proponents of the “science of reading” did not want teachers, parents, and policy makers to read. Spin Doctors, as it became known, was published in 1998. Three thousand copies of Spin Doctors were sold in the first year and then it quickly disappeared.
The book presented an in-depth analysis of the lack of scientific validity of the Houston Reading Study, and exposed the political campaign that was taking place at that time to change the minds of Americans about how young children are taught to read. In the twenty-five years since the book was published the analysis of the Houston Reading Study and the interpretation of the political events taking place have been born out in real time. Download Beginning to Read and the Spin Doctors of Science.
Debunking the "Science of Reading" - How The Spin Doctors of Phonics Are Harming America’s Children
The synthesis paper "Two Books on the Science of Reading" also provides a detailed overview of the second book that will be available in Fall 2023, entitled, Debunking the “Science of Reading” - How The Spin Doctors of Phonics Are Harming America’s Children. Download The synthesis paper "Two Books on the Science of Reading"
Debunking picks up where Spin Doctors left off. The National Reading Panel Report added to the fervor for phonics. It was a political triumph for Bush and Lyon at NICHD, but an empirical debacle.
The National Reading Panel identified 3,335 articles in refereed academic journals, 1,962 for phonemic awareness and 1,373 for phonics. However, there were only 57 articles from 52 studies in the category of the phonemic awareness, which together with 38 phonics articles, were selected for the meta-analyses. In some cases, there were multiple articles on a single study included in the selection. For example, one phonemic awareness study was represented in three articles. Thus, the number of studies in the meta-analysis is diminished further, and the weighting of studies with multiple articles confounds the findings of the meta-analysis. Of note, the flawed Houston Reading Study was selected as one of the 38 phonics articles.
Subsequently, between 2005 and 2017 the meta-analyses of the National Reading Panel were shown to be fundamentally flawed when the IES-WWC disqualified 13 of the 57 phonemic awareness experimental articles, and 11 of the 38 phonics articles, leaving only 71 acceptable articles that were included in the Panel’s report. The U.S. public school system has been required to comply with national and state laws and mandates on teaching reading in public schools based largely on the illusion of “scientific evidence,” which was the real outcome of the National Reading Panel meta-analysis. Again, of note, the Houston Reading Study was one of the studies the IES-WWC disqualified.
The Houston Reading Study and the National Reading Panel Report are frequently referenced as the “science” in the “science of reading” – but there is no science, just badly done quasi-experimental and experimental studies masquerading as controlled medical research. Debunking provides the evidence to support this statement.
Most importantly, Debunking addresses the stressful environments in which children are doing their best to learn in school. The last third of the book focuses on the impact of the poverty, racism and gun violence on the health, well-being, and academic development of children that is ignored by the Fordham Foundation, and other powerful right wing conservative organizations, by billion- dollar textbooks and test publishers, and by other privileged elites who now control public education. An alternate national way forward is presented.
The final paragraph of the synthesis paper states:
The world we are handing over to our children is dangerously destabilizing. Children will suffer if all our energy goes into irrational speculations about the “science of reading.” We’ve got to get a grip. The challenge we face at this moment in time is to do everything we can to gain societal support for children and young people by ensuring public schools establish learning environments in
which all students can develop the skills they will need to imagine and actualize transformative innovations in response to the dynamic complexity of the catastrophes that the future will soon bring. For kids’ sake we’ve got to step up. We can no longer be bystanders.
Please consider sharing the pdf of Spin Doctors and the paper on the book, Debunking.
Your support is very much appreciated.