Posted 2:02 PM by Susan Darst Williams

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Whoopsie Daisy! Is K-2 Really the Answer?

Boy, is my face red. I've been going around for years, promoting K-2 as the answer to our education woes. 'Course, I mean that we need to have systematic, intensive, explicit phonics instruction on the front burner for our kindergarten through second-grade classrooms.

Comes now State Sen. Beau McCoy of west Omaha, who is sponsoring a bill next session that would make the sale or possession of a new drug, K2, illegal. K2 is synthetic marijuana, and it can give you rapid heart rate, agitation, panic attacks, paranoia and hallucinations.

We already have enough of THAT in our schools -- particularly when people get their school tax bills!

K2 is sold as "herbal incense" and goes by brand names such as Spice, Black Magic, Blue Summit, Blueberry and SuperNova.

Thanks, Sen. McCoy, for alerting parents to this latest threat to our kids . . . and giving me a heads up to make sure I make it clear, when I promote "K-2," that I'm talking about PHONICS for the itty bitty kiddies!!!

Labels: K2 drug, Nebraska legislature, phonics, school humor, Sen. Beau McCoy

Posted 1:06 PM by Susan Darst Williams

GERING: 80% REDUCTION IN SPECIAL ED REFERRALS:
AND ALL IT TOOK WAS TO TEACH READING RIGHT!

Look at the fantastic success that the Gering, Neb., schools have enjoyed in improved reading achievement! New special education cases have been reduced by 80% because, at long last, the kiddies are being taught to read correctly. This is since Gering started a phonics-ONLY reading instructional program in elementary schools:

www.sraonline.com/download/DI/EfficacyReports/GeringSchools_DI.pdf

Can you imagine how much money the Omaha Public Schools would save by reducing its enormous special education rolls by 80%? Special education is the most expensive way to educate kids, and the fastest-growing educational spending category. Wouldn't it be great to reverse that disturbing trend?

This proves what I've been saying for years, that the vast majority of the students who are labeled "special ed" or "learning disabled" simply were not taught to read properly.

There is nothing wrong with their brains -- or there WASN'T, until they were literally addle-pated by Whole Language reading instruction. That's what most schools in Nebraska are still using, despite great news like this about phonics-ONLY instruction.

That's the bad news. The GOOD news is, even current special ed students can be brought up to speed in a relatively short amount of time with good curriculum like Gering selected . . . saving taxpayers countless millions of dollars, since costly remediation, re-remediation, and re-re-remediation won't be needed any more.

And in the future, kids won't be stigmatized and depressed with a bogus special ed label, which is the best news of all.

Wake up, educators, and give kids what they need in those early grades: PHONICS!

Labels: Gering, phonics, reduce special ed