Well, one school superintendent in CA recently admitted that his students were NOT taught to read correctly in his district's schools. He said this while being questioned about the poor reading scores.
I think having a decent reading program is even more important than parental participation. When I was going to school, there was very little parental participation, yet the majority of students learned to read.
For the most part, lack of parental participation is just another excuse. Several years ago, it was too much television. What's it going to be two years down the road?
California's reading scores took a slide into the dumpster when they introduced "whole langague" instruction, which treats words as pictograms. There are just so many pictograms that you can cram into your head.
"I think having a decent reading program is even more important than parental participation. "
There is no greater factor in educational success than parental participation and active involvement.
We can talk about reading programs, and they are important, but not more important than having parents that are actively involved in their kids education.
As they always have, the elite want schools to crank out servants, not competitors