Great interview. Just a quick comment: I think there may be crossed signals regarding MTSS. Did this parent ever consider that MTSS could be yet more 'edu-babble'? Or at least, maybe that the parents and the district are talking past each other on this issue because it means different things to both groups?
Just something to consider. Thanks for the real insight.
Thank you so much for posting this interview that is so heartfelt--and so disheartening! Berkeley is a neighboring district, and I recognize in my own district all the failings Lindsay Nofelt describes. What a tragic breakdown in educational responsibility that we force parents to do our jobs. There are so many obstacles at so many levels that meaningful change seems impossible.
One specific point about this:
"I feel like in Berkeley right now, we are still guilty of pandering to those who are not willing to look at how these reading practices have harmed kids. We’re still in that first stage of grief—denial, right? They're using resources that sometimes raise my eyebrows. The book club that they used for professional development the first year of the lawsuit was Shifting the Balance—and that book has some problems, where they're still promoting three-cueing, right?
It hurts when you see practices like three-cueing that have been demonstrated to be so harmful. I'm still working against it in the sixth grade.
My kid is still guessing the word based on the first letter of the word and the context from the rest of the sentence. It's a habit that stays with people for a really long time. It's a battle to unteach something like that when it happens so early in a kid's development."
I'm so glad you think so! I want to strongly encourage you and everyone else who reads you to subscribe to Claude Goldenberg. He is a Stanford literacy professor who is working really hard to end the reading wars--and he can't do it alone! Thank you.
Great article, Holly! Sounds so familiar! Thank you!
Great interview. Just a quick comment: I think there may be crossed signals regarding MTSS. Did this parent ever consider that MTSS could be yet more 'edu-babble'? Or at least, maybe that the parents and the district are talking past each other on this issue because it means different things to both groups?
Just something to consider. Thanks for the real insight.
Thank you so much for posting this interview that is so heartfelt--and so disheartening! Berkeley is a neighboring district, and I recognize in my own district all the failings Lindsay Nofelt describes. What a tragic breakdown in educational responsibility that we force parents to do our jobs. There are so many obstacles at so many levels that meaningful change seems impossible.
One specific point about this:
"I feel like in Berkeley right now, we are still guilty of pandering to those who are not willing to look at how these reading practices have harmed kids. We’re still in that first stage of grief—denial, right? They're using resources that sometimes raise my eyebrows. The book club that they used for professional development the first year of the lawsuit was Shifting the Balance—and that book has some problems, where they're still promoting three-cueing, right?
It hurts when you see practices like three-cueing that have been demonstrated to be so harmful. I'm still working against it in the sixth grade.
My kid is still guessing the word based on the first letter of the word and the context from the rest of the sentence. It's a habit that stays with people for a really long time. It's a battle to unteach something like that when it happens so early in a kid's development."
Three-cueing is maligned for good reason, but also misunderstood because there's a difference between word identification and word confirmation. In this piece, Goldilocks and the Three Cues: Will the Seven Blind Mice Ever Agree on the Parts of an Elephant? (https://highfiveliteracy.com/2024/12/23/goldilocks-and-the-three-cues-or-will-the-seven-blind-mice-ever-agree-on-the-parts-of-the-elephant/), I explain how I had to alter kindergarten assessments that promoted guessing in order to get meaningful data.
I highly recommend Claude Goldenberg's blog, We must end the reading wars . . . now, in general and his recent piece on three-cueing (https://claudegoldenberg.substack.com/p/tierney-and-pearson-reply-iii-on) in particular.
Thanks again for raising such important issues!
Harriet, great comment, this is really helpful.
I'm so glad you think so! I want to strongly encourage you and everyone else who reads you to subscribe to Claude Goldenberg. He is a Stanford literacy professor who is working really hard to end the reading wars--and he can't do it alone! Thank you.