"look and say" or "whole language" reading programpreviously used in the district."Mr. H. Marc Mason, Principal of Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Mesa, Arizona, said that in 1978 his school spent $23.42 per student on readingmaterials. In the same year, his teachers were trained [to teach phonics]. By 1981, expenditures for reading materials had dropped to $8.50 per student, [while atthe same time] achievement scores . . . surpassed the national, state, and district norms in language as well as in math."In his book, "Preventing Reading Failure: An Examination of the Myths of Reading Instruction," Dr. Patrick Groff devotes an entire chapter to a question that ismost commonly asked: Why do the myths of reading instruction prevail? The answer is summarized below.There is no single reason for the fact that research findings are not applied in teacher training institutions, or in the classroom. Common sense is defeated by the: Forces of tradition. Interlocking relationships between basal reader publishers and reading experts. Refusal of reading experts to accept outside criticism. Reading experts' lack of knowledge about phonics teaching, negative biases toward phonic instruction, and fear that phonics advocacy equals political conservatism. Negative attitudes toward phonics by teachers' organizations. Unsubstantiated information in educational publications. Expectancy that research will not affect teaching practices. Refusal to admit that there is a literacy crisis. Lack of legal redress for malpractice in reading instruction. Establishment of public schools and teacher education as a monopoly. Most teachers use methods of teaching reading that their professors teach them, or they follow the teachers' guide for the textbook series used in their schoolsystem, neither of which present logical and systematic instruction in phonics. In an Education Week article,...
