June 12, 1985, Rudolf Flesch concluded:"Decades of painstaking research have shown that neither our schools nor our teachers are to blame [for the illiteracy problem in America]. Rather, the fault lieswith a method of teaching reading that was first proposed for general use in 1927 and has since been adopted in most of our schools. It is called the 'whole-word'[look and say] method because it relies on memorizing the shapes and meanings of whole words. It was introduced with the best intentions: the idea was to makelearning to read more fun for our children. Today, it is almost universally used in this country."The results are evident in an illiteracy rate that is the highest in our history. We should not place the blame on our teachers but rather, we need a major overhaul ofour teacher training institutions. We will not halt the continued spread of illiteracy in America without this critical reform.Moving from what's new to what worksFrom the early 1960's to the mid 1980's, the Reading Reform Foundation was in the forefront of efforts to apply research findings to the teaching of reading.Since that time, hundreds of teachers and thousands of children have benefited from the practical application of the sound, proven, techniques of readinginstruction the Reading Reform Foundation has promoted. In 1993, The National Right to Read Foundation picked up the phonics torch and is carrying themessage to the nation, that direct, systematic phonics is an essential first step in teaching reading. Below are just a few of the success stories that can be told, andthe implication for the nation's schools should be crystal clear.If children are taught intensive, systematic phonics at an early age, until it is automatically applied in the reading process, then illiteracy is dramatically reduced,comprehension improves, and remediation is virtually unnecessary, except for very few.Example # 1: ask Mary Musgrave, Principal, Gallegos Elementary School, Tu...
