SCHOOL OFFICIALS AT FORUM ENDORSE SCRIPTED TEACHING By Ray Quintanilla Tribune education reporter April 6, 2001 Top Chicago Public Schools officials say they emerged from Mayor Richard Daley's Reading Roundtable on Thursday more convinced than ever that improving reading in the city's 200 worst elementary schools requires scripted classroom interaction between teachers and pupils. It is a controversial step, considering that many teachers and school reform organizations say such methods stifle creativity and harm the learning process. But Chicago Board of Education President Gery Chico said teachers have nothing to fear, because such instruction is free of guesswork and offers them a clear picture of what's expected. It's a roadmap for how to succeed, he said. "There's no getting away from this," Chico said moments after the conference concluded. "These methods have been shown to work. The mayor wants to see more progress, and we have to deliver." Daley has pushed for improving reading scores through direct instruction, a method that requires teachers to follow a script of what to cover each day and students to respond by calling out scripted answers. The conference Thursday--which attracted some 500 educators to the Harold Washington Library--was convened to promote an open discussion about what the Chicago Public Schools can do to raise stagnant reading scores across the system. Though the shortcomings of teachers were a hot topic of discussion, Daley said he did not believe the system's 26,000 teachers were solely to blame for the fact that only a third of the public school students read at grade level. "It's up to all of us to promote a culture of reading," Daley said. "I believe our success in reading will determine the long-term success or failure of our entire school reform effort. It's just that important." The 11-member panel included educators, administrators and reading scholars from across the nation. To improve, panelists said, Chicago's schools must do more to train teachers. Too often, they said, teachers come to school with no real concept of how to reach a child who labors to read. And those issues only become more complex as the pupil reaches the upper grades. One practical thing schools can do immediately to improve, they said, is hire principals who also have expertise in reading. Louisa Cook Moats, site director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Interventions Project, said teachers need a clear picture of what's expected. "Teachers tell us their days are overwhelmed with chores. They tell us they want to know what they should do, how to get things done. They do not want us to reinvent instruction," she said. But Sharon Frost, the only Chicago Public School teacher on the 11-member panel, said she felt teachers were unfairly singled out during the conference. "I don't think you can give a teacher a script and say, `OK, now go and get things done,'" said Frost, a 1st-grade teacher at Norwood Park Elementary School and a recent Golden Apple Award winner. "It's not that simple." Privately, public school officials say they have to find a way to compensate for poor teachers because firing bad ones has proved nearly impossible. Donald Moore, executive director of the reform group Designs for Change, said he was pleased Daley has made improved reading a top priority. But bringing children up to grade level is going to involve more than just scripted student-teacher interaction, said Moore, who was in the audience. "Once again there was a sense from some of the panelists that they had the magic bullet," he said. "In schools with low reading scores, there's a high probability those schools are dysfunctional on an organizational level as well." Daley said he planned in the coming weeks to appoint a blue-ribbon panel on how to improve reading in the public schools. -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
