L.A. Students Get Reading By the Book
But Test Results From a 'Scripted' Program Are Inconclusive
Kim Lattimore thought good teaching was doomed when her elementary school was chosen to test a rigidly structured commercial reading program under the Los Angeles district’s aggressive campaign to turn around dismal reading achievement. Even for the struggling urban school, where she was an assistant principal at the time, the lockstep program seemed excessive.
"I believe teaching is an art, and that teachers as professionals should be able to express themselves. When we rolled the program out," she said, "I wasn’t a fan."
Teachers and administrators throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District expressed similar concerns after officials announced in 1999 that most of the district’s 425 elementary schools would be required to...
This article is available to subscribers only.
To keep reading this article and more, subscribe now or purchase this article.
Subscribe to Education Week and Save
Get a full year and save up to 45%!
Viewed
Emailed
Recommended
Commented
- K-8 Principal
- EdVantages/Performance Academies, Detroit, MI
- Elementary School Teacher
- Success Academy Charter Schools, New York, NY
- Superintendent
- Pinellas County Schools, Pinellas County, FL
- 2 Positions -Associate Superintendent and Chief Academic Officer, and Director of Human of Resources
- Washington County Public Schools, Hagerstown, MD
- Program Coordinator
- Institute for Educational Advancement, South Pasadena, CA
