A call for rejecting the newest reading wars
To the Editor:
Re “A company has made millions selling books on reading instruction rooted in bad science” (Nov. 10, 2022)
We are educators who have devoted our lives to the cause of helping children read and write with power. We’re dismayed that at this moment in our history, when all of us should be banding together to support literacy education, the podcast “Sold a Story” fans divisiveness, creating a false sense that there is a war going on between those who believe in phonics and those who do not. Systematic phonics instruction is essential. That is a settled issue. And essential, too, is comprehension strategy instruction, knowledge building, vocabulary acquisition, language development, writing process, culturally responsive teaching, emotional well-being and attention to educational equity.
The “Sold a Story” podcast takes the fabricated phonics debate a step further, attacking the integrity of a group of educators who have led pioneering research and helped advance our field.
At a time when information spreads quickly and, sadly, too many important issues have become oversimplified and polarized, it is irresponsible to reduce the teaching of reading to phonics instruction and nothing more. To imply that other approaches are not just wrong, but money-making schemes, is reckless. Teachers and students will not benefit from biased storytelling and finger-pointing, especially when so much is at stake.
You can believe in the critical importance of phonics and not agree with the incomplete story being sold in “Sold a Story,” which paints educators as naively inadequate, gives them a lot less credit than they deserve and diminishes their agency.
We are asking for the rest of the story. The research that is being ignored, the stories of school districts and educators who have seen incredible success using comprehensive approaches to reading instruction that are conveniently left out of this narrative.
And we are asking that those who truly care about doing the real work come together and move forward in a productive way that recognizes all the elements of effective reading instruction. Let’s stop wasting our time fighting with each other and focus on what matters most.
Dr. Randy Bomer
Dean, College of Education, University of North Texas
Dr. Celia Oyler
Vice dean for teacher education, Teachers College, Columbia University
Dr. Laura Asceni-Moreno
Professor of bilingual education & bilingual program coordinator, CBSE, Brooklyn College
Katherine Bomer
Professor of practice in the Department of Teacher Education and Administration, UNT
Dr. Paul Thomas
Professor of education, Furman University
Dr. Timothy Rasinski
Professor of literacy education, Kent State University
Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs
Founder and president, Curriculum Designers
Mike Matthews
President of Authentic Education
Dr. Sam Bommarito
National reading consultant
Lois Bridges
Executive director, Bring Me a Book
Elisa Brown
Principal, PS 249, winner, Blue Ribbon Schools Terrel H. Bell Award for Outstanding Leadership
Sandy Brown
Director of elementary curriculum, Denton ISD TX
Christopher Paul Curtis
Winner of the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Honor Book Award and a National Book Award finalist
Georgia Heard
Poet and author of “Awakening the Heart,” “The Revision Toolbox” and “Falling Down the Page”
Carmen Agra Deedy
New York Times bestselling children’s book author
James Howe
Award-winning author of books for children and young adults
Sarah Weeks
Author of the bestselling novels “Pie,” “Save Me a Seat” and “So B. It”
Naomi Shihab Nye
National Book Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award and Pushcart Award winner, chancellor emeritus, Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Foundation’s Young People’s Poet Laureate from 2019–21
Dr. Harvey “Smokey” Daniels
Author of “The Curious Classroom,” “Upstanders” and “Literature Circles”
Dr. Cecilia Espinosa
Associate professor, Early Childhood Graduate Program, Lehman College
Michael Fisher
The Digigogy Collaborative, and Curriculum21 Faculty
Phil Daro
Educational designer
Prof. Lynne Einbender
Bank Street College of Education faculty
Dr. Lucy Calkins
Richard Robinson Professor of Literacy at Teachers College, Columbia University; founding director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Leslie Zackman
Retired superintendent, New York City
Carl Anderson
Educational consultant, author of “A Teacher’s Guide to Writing Conferences” and “How’s It Going? A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers”
Dr. Rachael Gabriel
Professor of literacy education at the University of Connecticut
Ellin Keene
Author of “The Literacy Studio,” “Engaging Children” and “The Teacher You Want to Be”
Ruth Swinney
Educational consultant and author
Dr. Daniel Friedrich
Associate professor of curriculum, Teachers College, Columbia University
Dr. Ofelia García
Professor, Ph.D. program in urban education, and Ph.D. program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian literatures and languages, City University of New York
Dr. Patricia Velasco
Associate professor of bilingual education, Queens College, CUNY
Dr. María Paula Ghiso
Associate professor, Teachers College, Columbia University
Dr. Cecelia Traugh
Dean, Bank Street Graduate School of Education
Dr. Phyllis Harrington
Superintendent, Oceanside Union Free SD
Dr. Kara Hollins
Lecturer, preservice elementary inclusive program in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University
Dr. Mary Howard
Expert in literacy, author of “Good to Great Teaching,” “RTI from All Sides” and “Moving Forward with RTI”
Bena Kallick
Co-Director, The Institute for Habits of Mind
Penny Kittle
Teacher, author, advocate
Laura Kotch
Retired NYC deputy chancellor
Jonathan Kozol
Author, National Book Award winner
Dr. Heidi Mills
Distinguished professor emerita at the University of South Carolina, educational consultant
Dr. Cara Furman
Associate professor of literacy education, University of Maine–Farmington
Dr. Douglas Reeves
Author and founder of Creative Leadership Solutions
Donna Santman
Education consultant, author of “Shades of Meaning”
Maurice Sykes
Author, former executive director of the Early Childhood Leadership institute at the University of the District of Columbia
Dr. Dick Allington
Professor emeritus, reading education, University of Tennessee
Dr. Amy Tondreau
Assistant professor, elementary education, University of Maryland
Dr. Mary Ehrenworth
Senior deputy director, Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Marc Tucker
Founder and CEO emeritus of the National Center on Education and the Economy
Patricia Vitale-Reilly
Educational consultant, author
Prof. Molly Welsh Kruger
Bank Street College of Education faculty, Reading & Literacy Program
Dr. Marjorie Siegel
Professor emerita, Teachers College, Columbia University
Anita Silvey
Author of “Children’s Books and Their Creators” and “100 Best Books for Children”
Dr. Kylene Beers
Author of “When Kids Can’t Read/What Teachers Can Do;” co-editor of “Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice”
Dr. Connie Briggs
Professor emeritus, Texas Woman’s University
Dr. Erika Dawes
Professor, chair of Language and Literacy Department, Lesley University
Dr. Mary K. Lose
Professor, Department of Reading and Language Arts, and director of the Reading Recovery Center of Michigan at Oakland University
