Posted on 12/05/2017 1:32:43 PM PST by Mariner
SAN DIEGO - A group of prominent lawyers representing teachers and students from poor performing schools filed a lawsuit against the state of California on Tuesday, arguing that the state has done nothing about a high number of school children who do not know how to read.
The advocacy law firm, Public Counsel, filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court to demand the California Department of Education address its "literacy crisis." The state has not followed suggestions from its own report on the problem five years ago, according to the lawsuit.
"When it comes to literacy and the delivery of basic education, California is dragging down the nation," said Public Counsel lawyer Mark Rosenbaum, who filed the lawsuit along with the law firm Morrison & Foerster.
Department of Education spokesman Bill Ainsworth said officials could not comment because the state had not yet been served.
Statewide English assessments found less than half of California students from third grade to fifth grade have met statewide literacy standards since 2015.
Both traditional and charter schools are failing, Rosenbaum said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Sight reader learners are at a major disadvantage, as they cannot sound-out most words, and (in my observation) are handicapped at a young age compared to phonics-trained students.
Teachers will swear up and down that whole language is superior, and will point to studies (poorly designed and controlled, one suspects) that support their falsified contentions.
Don’t fall for it. It’s ruse for more money
The downside of strict egalitarianism - erosion of gifted and talented and accelerated classes.
Done both so that no one is in a “higher” class and cost savings.
Interesting. We have had huge leaps of progress in every facet of human life, except schooling. Schools are basically the same now as they were 100 years ago. They are very slow to change and adapt, and it is because of the entrenched personnel. It needs to change. We’ll never get a second chance to educate our children. We so need a voucher system it’s screamingly obvious.
According to the left an education is a human right. And according to the left a public system is the answer. So the only choice is the sue the system for denying these kids their human right. If they get through ages 5-18, grades 1-12, and cannot read, cannot do math, cannot offer skills to the workforce they are being systematically disenfranchised by a parasitic system that bilks taxpayers to provide salaries to people who cannot do their jobs, and ultimately causing grave damage to the very system and society at large on which it depends.
Ethnicity Number of students Percentage African American not Hispanic 350,338 5.62% American Indian or Alaska Native 33,369 0.54% Asian 559,159 8.98% Filipino 153,670 2.47% Hispanic or Latino 3,378,344 54.24% Pacific Islander 29,384 0.47% White not Hispanic 1,470,499 23.61% Two or More Races Not Hispanic 207,170 3.33% None Reported 46,302 0.74% Total 6,228,235 100.00%
If a child cannot read in his or her native language it is nearly impossible to learn to read in a second language.
All part of the Marxist plan to take down the nation.
I realize people roll up their eyes when I say this, and it has cost me a lot of friendships, but illiteracy is BY DESIGN, from our ‘friends’ on the Left...and that includes our education system.
Yes, some, maybe most, of the people on the front lines, the ones we see in our schools, may well care about our kids, but parents don’t see the DECISION MAKERS, the ones that decide whether to use ‘Sight Words’ (i.e., whole language reading), or Phonics (by far the best approach).
One doesn’t have to think too long to figure out which approach the DECISION MAKERS in California has forced on their kids. Same for math.
Sadly, even here, most people think I’m full of crap saying what I do, as they continue to send their kids to public schools, even the ones with Sight Words and horrific math instruction.
Yes, they can. The problem with California elementary education, large numbers of children not being able to read, is due to the "sanctuary" policy. Large numbers of native Spanish speaking and Arabic speaking are freely immigrating into society, and the children are having problems in school.
The immigrant Chinese and Vietnamese groups excel in school
You may think you are being sarcastic, but that is actually how the teacher’s union and the democrat party here in California think.
That’s what the Dems want , can’t read ,can’t write , can’t count , low info voter
Cali schools need stronger teachers unions and more affirmative action teachers.
Get whitey out of Cali schools! Only then will Cali kids get the education they deserve. And screw whitey’s illiteracy test, who wants to act white anyway.
“Teachers will swear up and down that whole language is superior, and will point to studies (poorly designed and controlled, one suspects) that support their falsified contentions.”
For those who doubt you, go to a Kumon Center, and see what approach to reading is used, when parents DIRECTLY pay the bill. Also ask them what they think of calculators in math instruction - 180 degrees opposite of those in the public schools who claim to know how to educate our kids.
A CD Rom?
You youngster!
I learned to read with those as well. We used to race to see who could do the whole box. Usually we had it done by Christmas.
Yeah. They should make the test in spanish. That’s the way CA is going anyway.
Ah, lawyers.
What would we do without them?
I just remember making constant trips to the back of the room as I finished one card after another, moving through the different color-coded degrees of difficulty.
It appears so.
It further appears the "Direct Instruction" method outranks every other teaching method in this regard but has been successfully resisted by the unions and the decision makers.
If the agenda is to flood the community with barely functional members/government dependent voters, it would appear the ed system is on track.
Well, I see them texting so they probably can read
tho I can’t prove it. I’m not a parent.
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