[AAACE-NLA] STAR Struck!

[Sandy Strunk]

I¹d like to add my voice to what Karen and Susan have said on the topic of
STAR. If star-struck means captivated, I suppose I am star-struck by all of
the outstanding work that¹s been done in our field over the past few years
to help us better understand how to teach reading to adults. The work done
by the Reading Research Work Group pulled together some of the best thinking
of people whose work in adult education I greatly respect. John
Kruidenier¹s, Research-Based Principles for Adult Basic Education Reading
Instruction changed the way I think about the teaching of reading. The Adult
Reading Components Study helped me rethink strategies for differentiating
instruction in reading. STAR didn¹t invent this research, but it helped to
operationalize it in six pilot states.

I had the good fortune to be a member of the STAR national technical
assistance team for almost two years. Mary Beth Curtis taught me a
tremendous amount about the teaching of reading. Though I was trained as a
secondary English teacher and had many years of experience teaching ABE, GED
and ESL, I didn¹t know much about the teaching of reading. Mary Beth¹s
expertise, humor and dedication were greatly appreciated by all of us on the
TA Team. Lori Bercovitz and others from Illinois worked tirelessly to pilot
reading strategies in adult education classrooms and to develop their own
expertise in reading so that they could serve as a resource to the pilot
states. Reading trainers such as Jane Meyer, Laurie Martin, Lori Forlizzi,
Linda Thistlethwaite, Susan Finn Miller, and Amy Trawick did an amazing job
of helping teachers figure out how to assess a learner¹s reading skills and
differentiate instruction based on that assessment.

Pennsylvania contributed its expertise in program improvement providing
pilot states with Capacity Trainers such as Carol Shefrin, Karen Mundie,
Chuck Klinger, Ellen McDevitt, Debbie Hrach, Becky Wagner and Chris Coro
(prior to his transition to OVAE). I can¹t speak to the work that was done
after I left the project, but I will say that those involved in this
component of the project brought a wealth of experience and a willingness to
tackle some of the most difficult problems our field has to face (inadequate
resources, little or no prep time, multilevel classrooms, diverse funding
streams). We certainly didn¹t have all the answers, but we were willing to
honor and be a part of the struggle in each pilot state.

The leadership and support provided by the state directors and professional
development staff of California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Ohio and
South Dakota was also tremendous. Each state brought resources to the table
and tolerated the confusion, frustration, and last-minute changes that come
with being at the forefront of innovation. Most importantly, the teachers
involved in this project learned a great deal about teaching reading and
worked very very hard to put that learning to work in their classrooms.

Is STAR the silver bullet of adult reading instruction? Not by a long shot.
Was it one of the most difficult projects I¹ve ever worked on? Yup!  I don¹t
know what the final evaluation of this project will say, but I¹ll say for
the record that I¹m proud of this effort regardless of the outcome. Reaching
for the STARS is risky business. You might end up with a few bruises :-),
but in my experience, it¹s well worth the risk.

Sandy Strunk
Program Director for Community Education
Lancaster Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13
Lancaster, PA 17601


On 2/7/07 5:12 PM, "Susan Finn Miller" <susanfinn_miller at iu13.org> wrote:

> I have been in the field of adult literacy education for almost 16 years.
> During that time, I have taught ABE, GED, Family Literacy and all levels of
> ESL with some success. While I have certainly had course work and professional
> development over the years that focused on reading comprehension, none of my
> undergraduate, graduate, or professional development training taught me how to
> assess and teach reading to struggling readers. As a result, I have sought out
> this information through self study.
> 
> Over the last few years, the vast information I have found about teaching
> reading to intermediate level readers in K12 resources (e.g., materials by
> Isabel Beck, Janet Allen, Richard Allington, Ellin Oliver Keene & Susan
> Zimmermann, Linda Hoyt, Jeanne Paratore, Linda Christenson, Ted Rasinski,
> Kelly Gallagher, etc., etc) and in adult literacy resources, (e.g. Pat
> Campbell's useful book Teaching Reading to Adults: A Balanced Approach) is in
> line with the methods and techniques recommended in the STAR materials.
> 
> The big difference for me is that I now know how to teach reading to
> struggling intermediate level readers. My participation last year as a member
> of the national STAR reading training team was instrumental in building my
> skills to train others.
> 
> I agree with my friend and colleague, Karen Mundie, that literacy council's
> have been doing this forever; however, besides this group, most of my adult
> education colleagues in Pennsylvania are like me and have never been trained
> in how to teach struggling readers.
> 
> Tom points out that STAR is not built on a body of empirical research on
> teaching reading to adults. STAR is actually based mostly on research with
> children where there is a much larger body of evidence. Why not train adult
> literacy teachers on techniques and methods for teaching reading that have
> proven successful with children?  What have we got to lose?  We just might
> gain a great deal of useful information about what works and what doesn't, and
> some adult learners might just learn to read.
> 
> Susan Finn Miller, PhD
> Lancaster, PA 
> 
> 
> On 2/7/07 4:01 PM, "Karen Mundie" <kmundie at gplc.org> wrote:
> 
>> I have to say in STAR's defense that the techniques in the TOOLkit are same
>> ones collected together that most anyone who was seriously trying to teach
>> reading-- and willing to a little research on how it could be done--would
>> likely use. I don't think any reading professional looking at the Toolkit
>> would be a bit surprised at the content. 
>> 
>> The important thing is, and what I think STAR most emphasizes, is that
>> reading needs to be taught. I was a bit involved in the first year of the
>> pilot, and I'll l never forget the moment when one of the teacher
>> participants said, "I used to assign reading; I teach it now."  I'm afraid
>> that outside of literacy councils (and maybe inside, too) there's still a
>> whole lot of assigning going on.
>> 
>> 
>>  
>> Karen Mundie
>> Associate Director
>> Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council
>> 100 Sheridan Square, 4th Floor
>> Pittsburgh, PA  15206
>> 412 661-7323 (ext 101)
>> kmundie at gplc.org
>> 
>> GPLC - Celebrating 25 years of literacy, 1982-2007
>> 
>> 
>> This e-mail is intended solely for the use of the named addressees and is not
>> meant for general distribution.  If you are not the intended recipient,
>> please report the error to the originator and delete the contents.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> On Feb 6, 2007, at 6:41 PM, tsticht at znet.com wrote:
>> 
>>> February 6, 2007
>>> 
>>> The Federal STAR (STudent  Achievement in Reading) Project: Why Now?
>>> 
>>> Tom Sticht
>>> International Consultant in Adult Education
>>> 
>>> Recently the U. S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult
>>> Education (OVAE), Division of Adult Education and Literacy (DAEL) announced
>>> the STAR web site and professional development activity. The web site
>>> provides information about STAR:
>>> 
>>> Quote:"What is STAR?
>>> STAR is a comprehensive toolkit and training package to help Adult Basic
>>> Education (ABE) instructors use evidence-based reading instruction in the
>>> classroom. For more information, see About STAR.
>>> What is the National STAR Training Network?
>>> The National STAR Training Network (NSTN) encompasses national and state
>>> experts in reading instruction, state and federal policymakers, and
>>> practitioners. All are working in partnership with the U.S. Department of
>>> Education to use evidence-based reading instruction and the STAR model to
>>> improve adult reading. For more information see Contact the Network.
>>> Why STAR?
>>> STAR delivers the tools and techniques teachers need to help adult learners
>>> read and achieve."
>>> 
>>> In and of itself, the idea of tools and techniques to help adult learners
>>> read and achieve is not very notable because there are already numerous
>>> tools and techniques , commercial programs, etc. that aim to do the same
>>> thing. But repeatedly the STAR web site says it aims at assisting adult
>>> educators to use "evidence-based" reading instruction.  It describes
>>> "evidence-based" and says: Quote:"Evidence-based reading instruction (EBRI)
>>> integrates findings from the best available reading research with
>>> practitioner wisdom to inform instructional decisions. ŠWith EBRI, teachers
>>> use diagnostic assessment procedures to gauge the strengths and weaknesses
>>> of each learner and target reading instruction accordingly. ŠTeachers that
>>> use EBRI help learners improve their skills in each of the four components
>>> of reading - alphabetics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension - by
>>> explaining new concepts, modeling strategies, and providing feedback when
>>> learners practice."
>>> 
>>> However, the STAR web site provides no evidence that following its
>>> evidence-based approach will improve adult reading instruction over what is
>>> already being done by adult literacy educators. I have searched for
>>> scientific research indicating that a focus on alphabetics (code emphasis
>>> in Jeanne Chall's terms) with adults with low literacy produced better
>>> learning outcomes than some other, perhaps whole language (meaning emphasis
>>> in Jeanne Chall's  terms) approach. But I have found no  such research. No
>>> such research is cited on the STAR web site, and the report on principles
>>> of adult reading instruction that is mentioned does not include any such
>>> research, either.
>>> 
>>> The evidence that the STAR web site mentions also includes "professional
>>> wisdom," however no citation of professional wisdom is given. I have looked
>>> at historical approaches to teaching adults to read to find professional
>>> wisdom in using either code or meaning emphases. Cora Wilson Stewart in
>>> 1911 and beyond did not like the alphabetics approach and clearly stated
>>> that adults should be taught using the "word" approach. Reports of her work
>>> indicate that more than 180,000 adults learned to read following her "whole
>>> language" approach. But in World War I, J. Duncan Spaeth took a strong
>>> alphabetics (phonics) approach to teaching reading to soldiers. Then in
>>> World War II, Paul Witty took a strong "word", "whole language" approach,
>>> and indeed teachers in Special Training Units got demerits if they
>>> emphasized phonics too much. It is reported that over a quarter million
>>> soldiers learned to read using this meaning emphasis approach.
>>> 
>>> Septima Poinsette Clark favored a whole language approach in teaching some
>>> 10,000 teachers to teach 700,000 adults to read and write to vote in the
>>> early civil rights movement. Frank Laubach strongly favored a code emphasis
>>> while Ruth Colvin, founder of Literacy Volunteers of America  favored a
>>> whole language approach (interestingly, Laubach and Colvin have merged into
>>> one organization, ProLiteracy Worldwide).
>>> 
>>> This type of variable historical data on professional wisdom, and the lack
>>> of any solid research that I have found on the relative effectiveness with
>>> adults of the code or meaning emphases leaves me without any good data to
>>> help make decisions about the use of these two approaches. I know that
>>> Jeanne Chall favored the code approach in her clinical work but her
>>> reported gains did not seem to be much better, if at all better, than what
>>> other adult literacy programs reported. As I read the STAR web page, it
>>> appears that the STAR approach has been developed in large part by former
>>> students of Jeanne at Harvard.
>>> 
>>> It seems to me that the evidence base for the effectiveness of the STAR
>>> approach to adult literacy education is lacking, in both professional
>>> wisdom and scientific research. It seems to me that the national
>>> dissemination effort funded by the federal government is premature. I think
>>> that before such an expensive (over $31,400 for 45 adult educators) national
>>> dissemination effort is undertaken there should be research conducted to
>>> show that the STAR approach is more effective than other approaches to
>>> teaching reading with adults.
>>> 
>>> Too often national efforts by the federal government have been undertaken
>>> and millions of dollars have been spent to disseminate the efforts, only to
>>> see them fade away with little apparent long-lasting improvement to the
>>> Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS) of the United States. Will STAR
>>> go this way, too?
>>> 
>>> Whatever happened to the Adult Performance Level (APL) project?
>>> Whatever happened to the Equipped for the Future (EFF) project?
>>> 
>>> Are we about to be STAR stuck!
>>> 
>>> Thomas G. Sticht
>>> International Consultant in Adult Education
>>> 2062 Valey View Blvd.
>>> El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
>>> Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
>>> Email: tsticht at aznet.net
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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>>>  
>> 
>> 
>> 
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Sandra J. Strunk
Program Director for Community Education
Lancaster-Lebanon IU 13
1020 New Holland Avenue
Lancaster, PA 17601
(717) 606-1873
Fax-(717) 606-1905



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