This rejoinder provides comment on issues raised by Schwartz, Hobsbaum, Briggs and Scull (2009) in their article about evidence-based practice and Reading Recovery (RR), written in response to Reynolds and Wheldall (2007). Particular attention is paid to the processes and findings of the What Works Clearinghouse evaluation of RR. The suggestion…

Reynolds and Wheldall reviewed research relating to Reading Recovery (RR) and concluded that "RR has provided an excellent model in demonstrating how to plan, promote, and implement an intervention across an educational system and how to design a professional development programme" (2007, p. 218). They balanced this praise with concerns about the…

Alarms about a "literacy crisis" among young people have been sounded on a regular basis for more than a century. Yet as each generation of students matures, it is able to accomplish the reading and writing tasks necessary for society to continue. Perhaps then, rather than sounding more alarms, it is time to consider what anxieties, particularly…

Reading First, part of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, seeks to lift reading achievement by encouraging the use of reading programs that have been scientifically proven to work. Reading First, which accounts for just 2 percent of federal education spending, is helping many districts to achieve promising results--including Richmond, Virginia,…

Irreverently examines Rudolph Flesch's theories for teaching a child to read "properly." Alternatives to Flesch's method are also given. (HTH)

The recent findings on the prevention and remediation of reading failure are overlooked. A multitiered approach involving high quality classroom instruction and small group interventions can substantially reduce the proportion of students who struggle to read.

In an interview focused on his book "On Learning to Read: The Child's Fascination with Meaning," Bruno Bettelheim explains why he thinks reading primers are insulting and demeaning. He asserts that the absence of content in the primers teach children to dislike reading. (ML)

The author refutes the findings of a study (EC 124 401) indicating a birthdate effect on readiness level and suggests that school psychologists and others should stop blaming chronological age for reading failure. (CL)

Points out that current alarmist rhetoric about widespread reading failure is not based on facts. (HOD)

Provides a rebuttal to a television interview on the "Phil Donahue Show" in which John H. Richards suggested that many people suffer from an incurable disease called dyslexia and will never be able to read. Insists that with hard work, dyslexics can learn to read. (MKM)

Offers five responses to Pamela Carroll's article, "'i cant read i wont read': Will's Moment of Success" in the same issue of this journal. (PRA)

Describes how basal readers manufacture reading failures among students from less-privileged economic and social backgrounds. Reviews the history of reading instruction in the United States. Calls for educators to speak out against reading practices that protect the privilege of the upper and upper-middle classes by encoding their values and…

Offers a follow-up look at the life of an adult disabled reader and the academic, career, and personal success he has achieved in spite of his limited reading ability. (SR)

Argues that dropout prevention programs which promote reading success while keeping students on grade level must begin early and be staffed by teachers who believe they can make a difference and who foster positive self-concepts in their students. (MG)

Suggests that schools cannot supply the reading background and then do nothing to assist their potential poor readers to climb the first step in the development of reading. Suggests that teachers need to devote more energy toward the maintenance of the social and cultural security of possible poor readers than toward the immersion of these pupils…