Aus: Campaign with petition to withdraw the Reading Recovery intervention programme

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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Aus: Campaign with petition to withdraw the Reading Recovery intervention programme

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'It was damaging': the campaign to rid schools of Reading Recovery

By Henrietta Cook
https://www.theage.com.au/national/vict ... 51oqq.html
Ms Williams is among more than 800 parents, teachers and literacy experts who have signed a petition calling on the Andrews government to rid state schools of intervention programs that they claim are not backed by evidence, such as Reading Recovery.

The campaign is spearheaded by Dyslexia Victoria Support, Code Read Dyslexia Network and Learning Difficulties Australia – a coalition of groups that advocate for students with dyslexia and other learning difficulties.

Learning Difficulties Australia member Alison Clarke, who is a speech pathologist, said Reading Recovery taught students to look at pictures and guess words.

“They are teaching faulty strategies,” she said.

“It doesn’t work. I see so many students and they haven't had phonics instruction.”

Reading Recovery gives struggling grade 1 students daily, one-on-one, 30-minute sessions with a trained teacher. Some schools also offer it to older students, such as Tait.

A recent Monash University analysis of 150 Victorian primary school websites found the program was offered in more than 50 per cent of state, Catholic and independent schools.

But critics claim that the program is flawed because it's grounded in the “whole language” approach to reading. This method teaches children to read via osmosis, and assumes they will learn words through context.

They are calling for the program to be replaced with systematic synthetic phonics, which teaches students the 44 sounds in our speech and the letter combinations that make those sounds.

This, they argue, would benefit all students, including the 10 to 16 per cent who are believed to have learning difficulties such as dyslexia.

Reading Recovery has courted controversy in recent years.

In 2012 the Victorian Education Department stopped funding Reading Recovery tutors, with schools having to instead absorb the cost in their literacy budgets.

And in 2015, a report by the NSW Education Department found Reading Recovery had few long-term benefits.

Victorian Education Minister James Merlino said the Education Department did not promote or endorse specific programs and schools were best-placed to make these decisions.

“I would encourage the families and carers of children with learning difficulties such as dyslexia to speak with their schools to make sure they receive the support that best meets their child’s needs,” he said.
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Aus: Campaign with petition to withdraw the Reading Recovery intervention programme

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Here is a link to information about the petition. I have signed the petition and have urged people internationally to sign the petition - we need such a petition in other districts and indeed our countries - wherever Reading Recovery is entrenched!

https://www.change.org/p/james-merlino- ... FTlxt6htno
Remove Reading Recovery & Leveled Literacy Intervention from Victorian State Schools.
PROVEN METHODS OF LITERACY EDUCATION FOR VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS

Reading and writing are essential skills that our children will need throughout their lives and they deserve to be taught using the best evidence-based methods.

Dyslexia Victoria Support (DVS) and Code Read Dyslexia Network Australia Ltd (Code Read) and Learning Difficulties Australia (LDA) call upon the Minister for Education, for the sake of our children, to remove programs such as Reading Recovery and Leveled Literacy Intervention from Victorian public schools.

DVS and Code Read represent parents and others who have been impacted by dyslexia. Approximately 10 to 16% of students are thought to have learning difficulties, including dyslexia, with 4% being severely affected.

Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty, where there are problems with accurate and fluent word reading and/or poor spelling. Persons with dyslexia can, however, learn to read, spell and write with appropriate educational support.

Measures that help dyslexics also help other children to read, write and spell: EFFECTIVE READING INSTRUCTION

Much money has been spent on literacy, but not necessarily in the right ways. Reading Recovery is a literacy program widely used in Victorian schools that has been heavily criticised. In 2017 the New South Wales government abandoned the compulsory use of Reading Recovery in government schools: LITERACY AND NUMERACY STRATEGY 2017–2020 and DVS and Code Read request that the Victorian government do the same.

In place of Reading Recovery, the Victorian government should provide access for ALL children to programs that use an explicit structured approach to the teaching of reading – see LEARNING DIFFICULTIES AUSTRALIA (LDA)

Another program - the Leveled Literacy Intervention - has also been used in Victorian schools but is not supported by the research evidence and should not be funded in Victorian government schools.

DVS and Code Read urge the Victorian government:

to seek advice on the research evidence relating to effective approaches to the teaching of initial reading from organisations such as DVS, CODE READ and LDA, and also from researchers and academics who have relevant expertise in this field of research; and to avoid practices which are not supported by the research evidence, including Reading Recovery and the Leveled Literacy Intervention, which do not conform to the principles of structured literacy programs and whose effectiveness has been called into question by the research evidence.
Do follow the link above as this leads to further information.
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Aus: Campaign with petition to withdraw the Reading Recovery intervention programme

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I'm cross-referencing this thread with others featuring worries about the Reading Recovery programme - including in other countries such as America, the UK and New Zealand. This is truly an international issue:
The Reading Wars and Reading Recovery: What Educators, Families, and Taxpayers Should Know
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=861
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Aus: Campaign with petition to withdraw the Reading Recovery intervention programme

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

Great news - this petition is being signed by some of our 'GIANTS' in the field of promoting research-informed reading instruction - regardless of country.

Come on folks, it's SO EASY to sign these online petitions but we need a collective international voice - in huge numbers - and perhaps we can do good beyond Victoria in Australia!

Have you seen this thread on the 'General' forum about some of our international 'Giants' and the work they have undertaken so tirelessly to improve literacy for all?


viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1172
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Aus: Campaign with petition to withdraw the Reading Recovery intervention programme

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

Here is some of the work of Dr Louisa Moats on this issue of continued multi-cueing reading strategies (such as those embedded in Reading Recovery) and the need to do something about it - to protest:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1110

Louisa wrote:
Finally, we must take every opportunity to change a culture in education that promotes dissemination of half-baked theories, fads, opinions, and unsupported practices that jeopardise student learning. When you see something that does not align with reading science, say something. As long as we tolerate misinformation and mediocrity, our children pay the price.
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Aus: Campaign with petition to withdraw the Reading Recovery intervention programme

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Here is a thread featuring New South Wales' official response to the Reading Recovery programme - funding withdrawn!

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=953
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Aus: Campaign with petition to withdraw the Reading Recovery intervention programme

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

Prolific and amazing speech-pathologist blogger, Alison Clarke, writes about the petition - now over 1,000 signatories:

https://www.spelfabet.com.au/2019/05/pe ... y-and-lli/

Alison features on a short radio interview about the drawbacks of Reading Recovery:

https://omny.fm/shows/3aw-breakfast-wit ... ber-of-lea
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Aus: Campaign with petition to withdraw the Reading Recovery intervention programme

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Professor James Chapman summarises why it's overdue that Reading Recovery should be withdrawn from schools and from teacher-training:
READING RECOVERY BOILED DOWN

by James Chapman, Professor of Educational Psychology,Massey University
https://www.change.org/p/james-merlino- ... Bgh74s0%3D
Large numbers of children who receive Reading Recovery are unrecovered, or recovered for only short periods of time. This is because the program fails to address the essential skills beginning struggling readers need to learn.

Schools would be better to cut loose from RR. Instead, they should provide effective classroom instruction in Year 1 and identify as soon as possible those children who struggle with learning to read. Then, early intervention based on current scientific research on how children learn to read should be offered. This approach is better than the wait-to-fail approach of RR

James Chapman
Professor of Educational Psychology
Massey University - College of Humanities and Social Sciences
B.A., M.A., PhD
Please do read the full piece - it's not long - and then sign the petition to support the pioneers in Australia attempting to hold those in authority to account - it is on their watch that Reading Recovery continues to mis-train teachers and to mislead children in how best to lift the words off the page. This is a travesty.
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