The Economic Impact of Low Reading Achievement

The Economic Impact of Low Reading Achievement: Step 1: An intern or intern team (up to 3 interns 80 to 120 hours each, depending upon the efficiency of the students and course requirement) will inquire about and use appropriate course and professional resources to document the economic impact of low literacy. Step 2: As part of the project, students will explore a controversial reading intervention program that claims that K-3 reading instruction in virtually every class in America is the cause of low and mediocre literacy. Significant areas of neuroscience directly challenge the efficacy of popular early reading instruction. The science identified by Read Right developer Dee Tadlock, Ph.D., was published in 2005 in the book, Read Right! Coaching Your Child to Excellence in Reading (New York: McGraw-Hill). That and other documents supporting the concern will be provided to interns. Our Objective for this Project: We seek to have an independent source investigate the economic impact of widespread low and mediocre literacy in the U.S. and decades of failure. The inquiry will also examine popular and controversial reading theories to determine whether the dominant theory of early reading instruction could possibly be the cause of chronically low achievement. We predict the evidence will add up to suggest that low and mediocre reading skills have a negative economic impact--and that impact has continued for decades. The controversial approach to reading development and reading intervention we propose to include in this project is called Read Right Methodology, developed by Dr. Tadlock 35 years ago. The success of Read Right is credited to its alignment with how the brain learns a process, as well as strategies that overcome the brain's inherent limitations to working/short-term memory. Because of these limitations, the idea that children must learn to read syllable by syllable and/or word by word is problematic. Read Right methods work around this obstacle. Thus, we will connect interns to current and former Read Right students, parents, and education administrators who eliminated reading problems rapidly by purposefully avoiding the act of decoding even a single word. First-hand sources will include a state department of corrections program serving teens and adults using the controversial methods in prisons statewide to rapidly improve reading ability. Project Deliverables: (1) Final report with executive summary and supporting documentation. Organized as follows: a. Table of Contents b. Executive Summary c. Documentation and analysis of the economic impact of low literacy. d. Documentation and analysis of the "Reading Wars," an ongoing debate in the field of education about the best way to teach reading (education scientists advocate for five skills taught explicitly and Read Right Methodology which suggests the reading field is wrong about how the human brain uses phonetic information efficiently, and also wrong about the concept of "five separate skills.") e. Documentation and analysis of the effectiveness and economic impact of the presently dominant view: reading must be explicitly taught as five separate skills--two of which include phonemic awareness and decoding, as compared to Read Right's alternative view , which rejects decoding. Reading achievement of both will be compared and connected to economic impact. f. Concluding section: Intern observations, summations, and questions. g. APPENDIX: A. List of all sources; B. Economic impact models applied to the work; C. All brief articles used as evidence and/or to provoke thought (if copyright permits); D. Miscellaneous.

Read Right Systems Public Relations Project

Positions available: 3 Read Right Systems Public Relations Project Description: Students will assist Read Right Systems and founder Dr. Dee Tadlock in the identification of strategic Blog, Article and Pod Cast opportunities to share Read Right’s core message: The way reading is taught in grades K – 3 is wrong and the cause of widespread reading under-achievement in the U.S. The Intern or Team will also recommend appropriate theme or themes (single sentence statements) for each of the strategic resources identified. Our Objective for this Project: Help Read Right Systems spread the message “reading instruction is the cause of most reading problems” and grow contacts for Read Right Systems and Dr. Tadlock. Background: The rapid success of Read Right Methodology suggests that the popular way reading is taught in Grades K-3 (phonics, decoding, and individual word identification) is the reason 2/3rds of all American students in Grades 4, 8 and 12 read at a “Basic” level or below (sources: National Assessment of Educational Progress data, 2002 to present, and an independent, gold-standard study of Read Right methodology completed in 2010 by Scott et al.) Even a three-year, gold-standard study of the “five skills” theory of reading development, which received $6 billion in federal Reading First funding 2002 - 2008 found that the popular theory had “NO POSITIVE EFFECT” for children, Grades 1 – 3. Thus, the theory that has guided reading instruction in the U.S. for the past 20 years is seriously flawed. Brain science identified by Read Right Systems and applied to a significantly different approach to reading development explains why education is failing to teach reading in a manner that guarantees excellence for the majority of children and teens—and why so many cannot comprehend what they read. Project Work: (1) Assess the merits of Read Right promotional messaging (e.g., revolutionary approach to reading development) before launching the media search (see #2 below), so that the most impactful methods of dissemination are identified. The objective: Spread the message “reading instruction is the cause of most reading problems” and grow contacts for Read Right Systems. (2) Examine the data documenting Read Right’s effectiveness in order to verify the perceived effectiveness—and use the information to identify the appropriate level of media sources. For the identified sources, assess the mission and/or common themes of each to determine “best fit” for Read Right messaging. (3) Investigate appropriate non-academic (general public) and academic (educators and education researchers) blogs, articles, and pod casts . List, describe and determine “Impressions” (inclusive of readership, listenership, and viewership) to determine highest-profile sources sufficient to create grassroots “buzz” about the offerings of Read Right Methodology. (4) Analyze all media identified and rank based upon impressions. The list for each of the topics (blogs, articles, pod casts) must include no fewer than 5 per method (x3) if it is an individual project, 7x3 if it is a small group project, and 10x3 if it is a class project. (5) Create a “compelling theme” statement for Read Right Methodology for the top 3 methods in each category (individual or small group) or top 5 (class project). This requires knowing enough about Read Right’s services and the focus of each media provider to craft a customized compelling theme. Project Deliverables: (1) Final report with executive summary and supporting documentation. Must be organized as follows and include: a. Table of Contents b. Executive Summary c. Analysis of Read Right Messaging d. Blog Section (organized format to be provided for Read Right Systems) e. Article Section (same as Blog) f. Pod Cast (same as Blog) g. APPENDIX: Source list for each identified Blog, Article, and Pod Cast (URL or “other”)