The DfE, Dr Charles Perfetti, Uta Papen, Bob Sweet Jr and a tale that must be told....

[Debbie_Hepplewhite]

The hallmark of skilled reading is fast, context-free word identification and rich, context-dependent text understanding.

I was looking up this very famous quote (above) by Charles Perfetti via google and one of the top links flagged up was this literature below:

Literacy and Education

Policy, Practice and Public Opinion

Uta Papen, 2016

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=K_E ... ti&f=false

I was so horrified to read that the author describes Perfetti as an "unknown American researcher" (see page 73) - and I was so horrified (am so horrified) by the whole tenor of the pages I was able to review online, that I flagged this up to the IFERI committee for their information. Further, I may well buy the full book to review it.

If trainee-teachers are provided with this type of literature and if they are trained by people with views such as this author, then I despair.

I must go beyond a 'first impression' of the book, however, and read it all to be able to comment on it advisedly.

Anyway, I immediately heard from committee member, Bob Sweet Jr, and what he wrote in personal response is worthy, indeed important, to share in the public domain because it is extremely telling - telling of an ongoing international tragedy that needs to be told... (see my next posting).

This is the experience of IFERI committee member, Bob Sweet Jr:

http://www.iferi.org/cmt-management-tea ... -sweet-jr/

[Debbie_Hepplewhite]

So, this is what Bob replied with reference to Charles Perfetti - intended for my eyes in response to me notifying him about the book above, but I really thought this needed to be shared more widely.

I'm going to present Bob's words to me in large font, because this should be shouted from the roof tops and see it in light of Uta Pen's book (link in previous post), published in 2016 by Routledge!

Bob wrote (read it and weep):

I smiled when I read that Charles Perfetti was an “Unknown American Author.” Well, he may have been “unknown” to those who SHOULD have known him, but not to those of us who were grateful for his research and his wisdom during my time in Washington.

Just after the Snow Report, “Preventing Reading Failure in Young Children” was released Charles and Catherine Snow came to Washington DC at the time when I was working on the 'Reading Excellence Act' for the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce. We met both Dr. Perfetti and Dr. Snow in a conference room in the Raburn House Office building where they presented the report.

I had been in touch with Dr. Perfetti in the mid 1980s when we were working on producing the report released in 1985 “Becoming a Nation of Readers,” so was aware of his knowledge and expertise. He was on the panel for the “Snow Report” as you may know. During our meeting in Washington, DC he told me that “the reading wars are over.” I queried him about that because at that point in 1998 the “reading wars” were pretty hot. But, I think his point was that with the Snow report, Maryilyn Jager Adams work on both Becoming a Nation of Readers (1985) and Beginning to Read: Learning and Thinking about Print (1990); then along came Preventing Reading Failure in Young Children (1998) and the subsequent “Report of the National Reading Panel” finally released in 2000 after languishing in the U.S. Department of Education until Dr. Reid Lyon and I shook it loose and got it widely distributed, it SHOULD be over.

Here we are 18 years later. It certainly isn’t for lack of knowledge about WHY the “reading wars” should be over for sure. It is the adamant refusal of public educators and publishers in the U.S. and abroad to adopt the findings of ALL of the prestigious, well documents reports and applying them in the curriculum that the scandalous practice of whole word reading continues in 2016 unabated.

That is to say nothing about all of the international reports in England, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia and Canada during this same period of time. Of course these findings go all the way back to the 1960’s with Jeanne Chall in her report in 1967, Learning to Read: The Great Debate. Oh yes, I forgot the “First Grade Studies” and came to the same conclusion and that was the catalyst for Direct Instruction with Sig Englemann.

Charles Perfetti’s comment to me remains one of the hopeful comments made…that so far has not come to pass. The researchers have done their job, no question about that. Common sense and voluminous, valid research should be enough.

To say nothing of the many excellent reading programs that have been used all during this sad period in history. Those who have used them consistently testify that ALL of the children who apply the alphabetic principle, and learn to decode and encode and write, succeed and become proficient readers, spellers and writers. Not everyone will be a poet, or a Shakespearian writer, but they will be able to apply their skills in elementary and secondary and college or trade school, or just in a job right out of high school.

I surely wish that Dr. Perfetti had been right in 1998.

It remains for the public to demand a change in our schools. I do hope that will come, and that IFERI and others around the world will be a catalyst to bring about the needed revolution.

At least, we can say we are doing our part.

[Debbie_Hepplewhite]

See IFERI's 'Inform' factsheets:

http://www.iferi.org/iferi-inform-factsheets/

[Debbie_Hepplewhite]

PS: I have now ordered the book to read in full.

[Debbie_Hepplewhite]

Dr Charles Perfetti - footage for the 'Children of the Code' series:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frMZr8tJGPI

Dr. Charles Perfetti: An Overview of Reading and Future Directions

[Debbie_Hepplewhite]

Dr Charles Perfetti's work:

http://www.pitt.edu/~perfetti/charles-perfetti.htm