Thread by @plthomasEdD

Thread:

Reconsider the tone policing and respectability politics of #dyslexia #scienceofreading responses to Richard Allington's talk blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teach… @educationweek

@educationweek The first responses to Allington I saw were on Twitter by #dyslexia advocates. They repeatedly misrepresented his comments to be far more extreme than they were even though the thread had the audio to refer to. Leading a criticism with misrepresentation hurts your credibility +

@educationweek This misrepresentation was posted by the same person at least twice \/

@educationweek More accurately:
He said “idiot”
Said if Gov had called he would have said veto, shoot who wrote it
Said “if you want to hit someone over the head” (idiomatic for badger or argue; not actual violence)
Q’d over-identifying students as dyslexic, Q’d if dyslexia real
Dismissive tone

@educationweek The coverage by @educationweek is more accurate about the event but it also allows a mischaracterization (left) in the same article that has what Allington actually said (again, captured on audio) \/ \/

@educationweek I am not trying to defend Allington but a reasonable person would recognize that he was making bad decisions about taking swipes at politicians ("whoever made the bill") and never once advocated actual violence toward dyslexia advocates

He is exasperated, flippant, dismissive

@educationweek Why is Allington exasperated, angry, dismissive?

He mentions his 50 years in the field. I am approaching 40 years in an overlapping field.

Education has a long history of itself being dismissed. Educators and edu scholars are ignored, trivialized, and unrecognized

@educationweek I too am exasperated.

Over the last 20 years I have been proven right (although I was dismissed, name called, attacked) about accountability, charter schools, VAM, etc.

Allington is aware that reading expertise is overshadowed by reading programs and legislation

@educationweek So let's interrogate tone policing and the respectability politics of #dyslexia #scienceofreading responses to Allington and coverage in @educationweek

@educationweek While the language may appear civil the charges coming from #dyslexia advocates and #scienceofreading advocates as well as the dozens of articles in @educationweek are themselves dismissive and often deeply offensive

The word "idiot" doesn't have to be voiced to be understood

@educationweek Allington and I share a long view of the Reading War. We also share a more complex and fuller understanding of "science" and evidence on how to teach reading.

To be direct myself, journalists who just discovered the field of reading are very condescending, ill informed

@educationweek The evangelical zeal of #Dyslexia and #scienceofreading is very offensive and dismissive

Again tone policing someone's word choice is often a distraction from having no credible response to the substance of the person being confronted.

@educationweek Allington carefully detailed the *lack* of research behind some of the most aggressive arguments by #Dyslexia and #scienceofreading advocates. Yet those who attack Allington are focusing on his word choice and *their own misrepresentations* of his comments

@educationweek Let me reiterate:

Media coverage of #scienceofreading by @NPR @educationweek @PBS @nytimes etc. has all been offensive, dismissive of my field, expertise *even as the tone, language has been civil*

#Dyslexia #scienceofreading advocates have also been dismissive, condescending

@educationweek @NPR @PBS @nytimes Are there credible concerns about Allington's talk?

Absolutely.

But so far the media and #Dyslexia #scienceofreading advocates haven't been held accountable for their tone or their misrepresentations or their unscientific arguments to support "science"

@educationweek @NPR @PBS @nytimes Must we wait a decade or so for this to pass and the whole mania to be proven wrong?

In education "we told you so" is the most hollow thing we can do since the most vulnerable children in high-poverty states are being retained in 3rd grade, punished, to raise test scores

@educationweek @NPR @PBS @nytimes I am telling you now:

#scienceofreading is not a silver bullet because how students are taught reading is way down the list of edu problems

#Dyslexia policy MUST not be reading policy and we MUST not over-identify children as being dyslexic (see ADHD) +

@educationweek @NPR @PBS @nytimes The conditions of any child's life in their homes and communities MUST be addressed

The learning and teaching conditions of every child's formal schooling MUST be addressed

And balanced literacy is the guiding philosophy that will serve all students' needs. /fin

@educationweek @NPR @PBS @nytimes @threadreaderapp unroll