Board Members Fear Lag in Phonics Instruction

A year ago, the state of California declared in no uncertain terms that children in their early school years were to be taught phonics--systematically and explicitly--to boost reading scores that lag behind those in more than 40 states.

But some members of the Los Angeles Board of Education fear that district instructional leaders haven’t gotten the message.

Although the state allocated $195 million statewide to train teachers in phonics-based methods and underwrite the purchase of compatible textbooks, Los Angeles has used some of its share to hire $3,000-a-day “whole language” consultants from New Zealand. As a result, some board members are worried that the district might not get passing marks should the state demand to know how its money was spent.

Supporters of “whole language” believe that children pick up most of the reading skills they need indirectly, and can learn to identify words by using pictures or sentence structure as readily as they can by using letters alone. But in response to the dismal performance of the state’s fourth-graders, Gov. Pete Wilson last year signed a series of bills aimed at changing that view among teachers.

During a three-hour hearing of the Los Angeles school board Monday, district officials defended their approach to spending money allocated by those bills, saying that 10,000 teachers and administrators have begun studying the 13 topics required by the state--such as how to teach spelling and how to make sure children can break words down into their sounds.

“This is a massive effort to add to and strengthen our reading program in the early years,” said Assistant Supt. Amelia McKenna, who said that it would take three to five years to complete the effort.

District officials acknowledge that 60% of third-graders in Los Angeles schools cannot read adequately. But at some schools that figure is 80% or more.

McKenna reassured board members that the district is speaking “with a common voice and a common message” about the importance of following the state’s directive, using videos, seminars for teacher leaders and meetings that draw hundreds of teachers.

Supt. Sid Thompson said the district is taking the additional precaution of requiring every elementary school principal to document how the state’s required topics have been addressed. “All principals have been informed that we must pass muster school by school,” Thompson said. “It’s not just that it was done. They must be prepared to respond specifically and say how it was done.”

At issue is a relatively small amount of money, about $5 million in state and federal training funds for the Los Angeles Unified School District. But the state Board of Education has told school districts that it plans to audit the spending of those funds this summer and next fall to ensure that they are complying with the rules requiring that it be spent to further phonics-based instruction.

“When state money is involved . . . state regulations come with it,” said Bill Lucia, the state board’s executive director.

The state will not merely audit the financial aspects of the program, he said during the hearing, but “they’re actually going to be looking to see how that money was spent. In some districts, there is a very clear question about whether that money is being used appropriately.”

John Shefelbine, an associate professor who trains teachers at Cal State Sacramento, said most teachers today are unfamiliar with how to teach children to read using phonics and phonics-oriented books.

“It’s a very different kind of instruction from what they’re used to,” he said. Teachers “have been given a lot of very mixed messages about beginning reading so the district has to be very clear.”

Shefelbine is among a long list of the district’s consultants, which include several favoring whole language. He said that in addition to learning phonics, children need to practice reading as well as receive opportunities to discuss books using “academic language” to broaden their vocabularies.

Los Angeles board member David Tokofsky asked for the hearing because he was concerned about whether the district was complying with the law.