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Karen Vaites Profile picture
@karenvaites
Nov 13, 2021 • 17 tweets • 12 min read • Read on X
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I spent my week in Massachusetts, which is Balanced Literacy Territory, meeting amazing educators shifting away from BL.

LOTS to say about that…

But let’s start with a look at the market share of the lowest-rated curricula for elementary ELA.

#CurriculumMattersMA Image
First, a fun fact:

Massachusetts is the only state to publish info on the curriculum used in each district. Find it here: google.com/maps/d/u/0/vie…

HT @MASchoolsK12. 👏

It’s such valuable info that you’d think every state would do this! The other 49 do not. Image
I spent time with the map, which shows the curricula used in 177 of 404 districts in MA. So, it’s a partial sample.

I found 55 districts that use Reading Workshop / Units of Study, including “top” districts like Brookline.

Summary:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
#CurriculumMattersMA Image
Another 21 districts in Massachusetts use Fountas & Pinnell, a curriculum with similar DNA. Image
So, based on this sample, that’s 31% of districts using the @TeachersCollege Reading Workshop approach alone.

43% of districts use either #tcrwp or @FountasPinnell.

These are the two lowest-rated curricula in K-2 English Language Arts.

#CurriculumMattersMA
When we met with @pentucketteach, I shared my analysis with him. His immediate reaction was that it underestimates the use of these programs. (Again, the heat map = a partial sample.)

He believes 60% of MA districts are using a Balanced Literacy program. (There are multiple.) Image
In any case, these curricula are very popular in Massachusetts... and the latest reviews of both put them at the bottom of the barrel.

Lowest-rated in K–2
Two of the three lowest-rated in grades 3-8

These aren't the first critiques of these programs...

edweek.org/teaching-learn…
In January, 2020, a review of Reading Workshop by seven literacy experts found the program "unlikely to lead to literacy success" for all students: eduvaites.org/2020/01/25/und…

@ehanford's journalism has been illuminating issues with the program since 2018:
The concerns are not new. Yet these curricula remain deeply popular.

The good news: pioneering districts are starting to break away from them.

Here's a thread from UP Academy Holland, which recently changed from F&P. Follow #KnowledgeMatters for more.
As in other regions, parents have caught onto the issues. In some cases, they have organized.

Parents have organized in Winchester (#TCRWP district). Hear their voices in this video from @UnitedLiteracy.

Follow leaders @Sarahabbottganz @amypoftak.

Image
I’d encourage hearing from the districts that have made the switch away from these curricula for unique perspective; the recent #KnowledgeMatters School Tour is a fantastic source of insight.

Also, search #CurriculumMattersMA for more.
Another interesting perspective on #MassLiteracy:
But mostly, listen to the educators who’ve figured out that these popular programs are not serving children.

Really, listen to @mandymholl.
I just learned that Rhode Island also has a new-ish curriculum map:
ride.ri.gov/InstructionAss…

HT @lkbivona.

One callout: “locally-developed and/or multiple” very often means that @FountasPinnell is somewhere in the mix, at least as the assessment. Image
These comments from a parent in a MA district listed as having “district-developed” curriculum (there are at least 15 districts like this in MA) are telling.

F&P is frequently used as part of the mix, as is the “workshop model” popularized by @TeachersCollege. ImageImage
In any case, while curriculum landscape is a bit different in RI, the main observation is same: most districts do not use high-quality curricula.

As of 2019, only 7% of districts nationally used high-quality, standards-aligned programs in K-5 ELA:
edweek.org/teaching-learn…
Another curriculum map!

Add Wisconsin to the list:
wimaterialsmatter.org

HT @sjbriggs. 3 states down, 47 to go.

As before, I didn’t need to scroll far to find #tcrwp.

#CurriculumMattersMA Image

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More from @karenvaites

Karen Vaites Profile picture
Apr 26
The @sfchronicle Editorial Board is over it.

This whole editorial is 🔥, and the literacy portion is nuclear.

“Nearly 60% of our 3rd graders didn’t meet state standards” for ELA.

“Meanwhile, poverty-stricken red states such as Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama have surged ahead of California in childhood literacy after adopting mandatory foundational literacy teaching and training.”

@mgpotente @BerrinchudaM @KJWinEducation @careads @SFParentsImage
For context, California advocates have put forward a reasonable literacy bill for the second year in a row – AB1121 – and it’s under fire.

Here’s what @sfchronicle Editorial Board has to say: Image
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@sfchronicle “Yes, you read that correctly — ensuring California kids receive the most effective reading lessons didn’t even merit a discussion among Democrats in the face of union opposition.”

Read the whole thing. Image
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Read 5 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Apr 13
The trouble with having Mississippi as THE standard-bearer for state reading reform is that some people don’t buy it, just because it’s Mississippi.

I sat in a restaurant in Brooklyn last night, telling a table full of new acquaintances – two of whom listened to @ehanford’s Sold a Story – about Mississippi and the Southern Surge.

They were fascinated. They had questions about why this work isn’t happening in NY.

But one guy kept shaking his head. “Mississippi. It’s just hard to believe.”

Friends, that is why we must talk about Louisiana, Tennessee, and Alabama.

Some people simply won’t embrace a one-state “miracle” as their model. However, a four-state pattern is hard to deny.

🧵
@alexanderrussoImage
I posted the viral Urban League chart in another platform, and a Dem friend wrote this in response.

Some people will reflexively reject a “Mississippi Miracle.” Which is why we need to talk in terms of “Southern Surges.”

I don’t make the rules, I’m just reporting the reality. Image
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People spun up myths to explain away the Mississippi Miracle. Those myths have been debunked, but they get floated every time you talk about Mississippi.

Louisiana’s 3rd grade retention law doesn’t go into effect until this year. Its gains are completely unaffected by retention policies.

See how much easier it is to make a case for following the leading states when they are a cohort?
Read 4 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Jan 14
Wowza news in early literacy:

Study shows major gains in K-1 reading outcomes from use of the viral, and virtually free, UFLI foundational skills program.

In fact, I’ve never seen effect sizes this high from a study of a literacy program.

Congrats @HollyLanePhD @burnsmk1 @UFLiteracy!Image
Link to study here:

If there are higher effect sizes from use of a curriculum product, pls send me that study, BC I need to know it.

One more reflection…researchgate.net/publication/38…
One of my favorite things about UFLI: it asks 30 minutes a day from teachers for foundational skills work.

Teachers in this study were spending 30 min/day.

The attention that the UFLI team gave to creating an effective program *within a 30 minute window* is laudable.

We still live in a world where the “Science of Reading” encounters resistance for being over focused on phonics, and for robbing time from other valuable and exciting work like getting kids into rich texts.

If your program is 30 minutes/day, you leave plenty of time for the other essentials of literacy.

AND - if a 30-min program has gone viral within the Science of Reading community, that says a lot about the demand in that community.
Read 5 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Apr 8, 2024
A key reminder in the Science of Learning conversation:

You can always find weak studies to support adult preferences about how kids should learn.

Here’s a good example. This was recently tweeted by a prominent teacher, in defense of choice reading (letting kids pick the books they read).

files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ116…Image
If you read the study, you realize:

The authors are fully bought into the theory, common in education, that enjoyment of a task improves your outcome with the task.

Just because it does. Image
.@C_Hendrick talked about this common misperception in his brilliant keynote at @researchED_US.

This was the segment:
Read 9 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Apr 7, 2024
.@C_Hendrick’s keynote at @researchED_US was astoundingly good.

I caught most of it on video…

Sorry that it’s in Tweetable chunks, but I promise that it’s worth the headache of pressing Play a few times.

What is learning, Carl asks?
Image
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The problem is that learning is highly counterintuitive.

How we think we learn, and how we actually learn, are more often than not very far apart.

@C_Hendrick
@C_Hendrick As he outlines the six paradoxes of learning, @C_Hendrick speaks personally about #2, the difference between working memory and long-term memory.

“I had no idea about this for the first 5 years of my teaching.”
Read 16 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Apr 6, 2024
Are these educational beliefs familiar to you?

They were once familiar to, and believed by, @MrZachG.

“I’m not a contrarian. I believed what I was told” in teacher preparation.

At @researchED_US: Image
His learning journey brought him to more effective practices.

@MrZachG details Project Follow Through, a massive US study of instructional approaches that showed the relative effectiveness of explicit instruction vs more popular approaches. Image
@MrZachG In his podcast, @MrZachG goes into detail on Project Follow Through with some of the original participants, including Linda Carnine:

It’s a fascinating listen! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pro…
Image
Read 4 tweets

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