Tag Archives: Rachel Cohen

Billionaires Support Corrupted Science of Reading

1 Jul

By Thomas Ultican 7/1/2025

Science of Reading (SoR) was always a fraud; it is not based on sound science. In 1997, the National Reading Panel was established by congress and 21 volunteers were given 18 months to study reading education. They searched through academic papers, averaged results and made a report that billionaires now label the “science of reading.” June 25th, the oligarch established propagation rag, The 74, published yet another article employing obfuscation to sell SoR.

The article, “How Districts in Georgia, Maryland and D.C. Are Raising Reading Proficiency,” was written by Andrew Cuomo’s former education advisor, David Wakelyn PhD. While working for the National Governors Association, Wakelyn was part of the team that developed the Common Core State Standards. He also served as Deputy Secretary of Education in New York. Today, this former California school teacher has founded Upswing Labs where they conduct research supporting the SoR approach to literacy.

Selling SoR

The first article in a series of posts promoting the “Mississippi Miracle” was written by Wakelyn and Michael Hartney for the New York Post. Its headline read, “NYC should look to the Mississippi Miracle to learn how to teach reading.” Upswing Labs produced two papers in June called “Mississippi or Manhattan” and “Dynamic Districts & States: Where and How Literacy Is Improving.” The last article is Wakelyn’s The 74 article on June 25.

“Mississippi or Manhattan” presents the following graphic to show how superior Mississippi’s reading teaching is to New York City’s.

For unknown reasons, Wakelyn has converted the NAEP average scale scores to an undocumented grade equivalent. He claims one grade level is approximately 10 scale score points, but that makes no sense since the average scores are all above 200. However we do see that Mississippi had made impressive gains. A graph of the average scores shown below has the same shape as the Upswing Labs graph above.

The graph on the left is of the average NAEP scale score for 4th grade reading in Mississippi (red), national public schools average (blue) and New York City (green) years 2003 to 2024. (Note: only the symbols on the graphs represent real data; the lines do not.) The graph on the right is configured the same way for 8th grade testing data. The NAEP data reveals that by 8th grade all of Mississippi’s impressive 4th grade gains have vanished.

These results are likely the result of Mississippi’s mandatory retention policy for third graders whose testing does not achieve the requirements for advancement. By holding back almost 10% of their 3rd graders, Mississippi has by far the highest 3rd grade retention rate in the country. Average 3rd grade retention for all states is 3% and many states have less than a 2% rate. Obviously, Mississippi’s weakest students spend an extra year in 3rd grade so it makes sense that their 4th grade NAEP reading scores have improved but by 8th grade the gains are gone.

This is the basis of the “Mississippi Miracle” and like much of the billionaire financed education agenda, it is a fraud. David Wakelyn earned a doctorate of education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is certainly aware that the Mississippi data is problematic yet he promotes the distortion.

Maybe it is time for Universities like Wisconsin to consider rescinding doctoral degrees that are being used for lying to the public.   

The 74 Article

David Wakelyn’s article in The 74 is focused on selling the wonderful results from three exemplary districts, “Marietta City in the Atlanta suburbs; Allegany County, at the edge of the Appalachian Mountains in Maryland; and DC Prep, a K-8 public charter school network.” The three districts are small. The total numbers of 4th graders available for testing are DC Prep – 223, Marietta City – 681 and Allegany County – 553.

Wakelyn lauds the science of reading products these three districts have purchased. Why he chose them is a little mysterious. They are so small that they are statistically almost meaningless. He states:

“The districts launched deep, extended professional learning for all elementary teachers over two to three years.  Marietta City trained teachers with Top Ten Tools, a set of mini-courses on core elements of literacy and how to teach them, then added a year of training with Writing Revolution, a set of courses on teaching expository writing. In 2020, Allegany County began a two-year engagement with LETRS, to help teachers master the basics of reading and writing instruction — phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.”  

Top Ten Tools is a product of the 95 percent group inc. founded by Susan L. Hall. It has 220 employees and took in $7.4 million last year. They are one of the many companies working to profit off SoR. Hall is also a Sopris West certified trainer for DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) and LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling). She is the author of “I’ve DIBEL’d, Now What?,” and a co-author with Louisa C. Moats of two books.

In 2023, Rachel Cohen wrote an informative article about SoR, noting about LETRS:

“Despite its close associations with the “science of reading” — LETRS has its own middling track record of effectiveness. One experimental study found teachers who were trained by LETRS did improve in their knowledge of reading science, but their students did not have statistically higher differences in achievement than teachers in the control group.”

The Writing Revolution (TRW) comes out of work by Dr. Judith Hochman of New York. A 2012 award-winning feature article, “The Writing Revolution,” was published in The Atlantic about The Hochman Method giving her national exposure. In 2014, TRW became a 501 C3 tax-exempt non-profit. TRW is not an SoR focused company but they are profiting off public education and like many of today’s non-profit organizations have multiple 6-figure earners (TIN: 46-4970867).

Wakelyn also stated in The 74:

Both Marietta and Allegany improved the quality of their K-5 language arts curricula.  Marietta dropped giving students books they could already read — a popular practice that hasn’t been found to facilitate learning — and switched to Wit and Wisdom and a skills-based foundational class. Allegany stopped using Treasures and switched to Core Knowledge Language Arts. Both are highly rated by independent reviewers and are designed to build a deep and wide knowledge base using grade-level texts in science, history, literature and the arts.  

The “hasn’t been found to facilitate learning” comment is based on a blog by Timothy Shanahan. An early commenter to Shanahan’s post did not like that the article focused on learning level with no mention of content. The writer states, “I’m a retired elementary teacher and school principal, and it has been my experience that students are often thrilled to read materials whose content they find interesting or unique.”   

“Wit and Wisdom” is a scripted curriculum that has enemies on both the right and left.

Since “Treasures” is no longer in print, I would expect that schools are replacing it.

Core Knowledge Language Arts is controlled by Amplify and billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs. It is only lauded by other billionaire-controlled entities.

Conclusion

SoR is a dressed up version of George W. Bush’s Reading First Initiative from 2001. In 2008, The Center for Public Integrity reported, “An April 2008 study revealed the general ineffectiveness of Reading First and found that students in schools receiving funds for the program had no better reading skills than children in schools that did not.” Unfortunately, billionaire dollars kept the SoR malarkey alive.

The real reason for promoting SoR is the billionaire plan for resting control of education away from universities and ending democratic control of schools. The agenda is for all teacher education and training to be privatized. Organizations like TNTP and Relay Graduate School are sub-standard billionaire financed entities with political clout pushing aside public institutions.  

For billionaires, SoR has never been about better reading education. It is just one more element in their drive to eliminate democracy.

The “greedy bastards” lust for power and wealth is perverting everything.

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Billionaire Science-of-Reading Support

21 Jan

By Thomas Ultican 1/21/2024

National Center on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released an unreviewed report (1-16-2024) on state laws, about teaching reading inadequacy. That day, The 74 ran an article about it, verified by an EdReports’ curriculum quality evaluation. These three entities are billionaire creations, used to chip away local control of schools.

In a 2012 Washington Post Answer Sheet Blog, Diane Ravitch shared,

“NCTQ was created by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation in 2000. I was on the board of TBF at the time. Conservatives, and I was one, did not like teacher training institutions. We thought they were too touchy-feely, too concerned about self-esteem and social justice and not concerned enough with basic skills and academics.”

Kate Walsh led NCTQ from 2000 until 2022, retired and Heather Peske took over. During Walsh’s tenure, notoriety was gained by teaming with Newsweek and claiming America’s teacher education programs were unsatisfactory. Their research methods were widely panned. They Looked only at class syllabi and made no attempt to ascertain new teacher job performance before denigrating the programs. 

NCTQ’s rankings were endorsed by eight state school education chiefs, part of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change: Janet Barresi, Oklahoma; Tony Bennett, Indiana; Steve Bowen, Maine; Chris Cerf, New Jersey; Deborah A. Gist, Rhode Island; Kevin Huffman, Tennessee; Eric Smith, Florida and Hanna Skandera, New Mexico.

Walsh also famously called for teacher merit pay and held up Washington DC’s schools as a good example. Critics called the Washington experiment a failure because of the high stakes and “significant differences” in percentage of teachers rated “highly effective” in low and high poverty schools. Teaching is so complicated, with no justifiable way for accurate evaluations for these high stakes.

Heather Peske has a resume that makes billionaire education reformers comfortable. After starting as an elementary teacher in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she served as Director of Teacher Quality at The Education Trust and later, Vice President of Programs at Teach Plus. She was also named “Future Chief” by Chiefs for Change, became a Broad Academy Fellow and earned a doctorate in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Peske Report

Action 1 of the NCTQ report, named “Five Policy Actions to Strengthen Implementation of the Science of Reading,” began by calling for standards, “Many new teachers aren’t prepared to teach reading because only 26 states provide clear standards to teacher prep programs.” This translates to mean only 26 states provide billionaire-funded standards. NCTQ has been relentless in its attempts to undermine university-run teacher training.

Action 2 calls for “reviewing teacher prep programs to ensure they teach the science of reading,” claiming it is laudable that Indiana and Ohio have audited prep programs, ensuring focus on implementing the science-of-reading (SoR).

Action 3 requires elementary teacher candidates to pass a reading licensure test. The report cautions readers that some tests do not fully address all five core components of SoR, another call for turning over teacher selection to private entities.

Action 4 addresses “the use of high-quality curricula aligned to the science of reading.” NCTQ’s solution to this is to sign on with EdReports which reviews reading materials and lets client schools know its alignment with SoR.

The report claims “only nine states require districts to select high-quality reading curriculum materials” and noted that forward-looking states, like Arkansas, partner with EdReports.

Action 5 provides “professional learning and ongoing support to sustain implementation of science of reading.” Current elementary teachers are to receive high-quality professional learning in scientifically-based reading instruction and demonstrate their learning.

They claim Mississippi found that teachers’ ability to teach reading improved after participating in the Language Essentials for Teaching Reading and Spelling’s (LETRS) professional development program. Texas and North Carolina mandate LETRS training.

This report hinges on the belief that SoR is the only good method for teaching reading with no downside. United Kingdom went to a program similar to SoR in 2012. Last year reading researchers published a major study that concluded England’s over-emphasis on phonics instruction was harmful and caused reading test scores to go down.

NTCQ’s report was funded by The Joyce Foundation.

In August, Rachel Cohen wrote an informative and balanced article about SoR, reporting:

“Despite its close associations with the “science of reading” — LETRS has its own middling track record of effectiveness. One experimental study found teachers who were trained by LETRS did improve in their knowledge of reading science, but their students did not have statistically higher differences in achievement than teachers in the control group.”

She noted the Orton-Gillingham reading intervention, favored by SoR advocates, yielded mixed results and “wasn’t found to significantly boost comprehension or vocabulary.”

Cohen also wrote:

“Generally reading experts say the policies included in the new state reading laws are a “real mixed bag.” Some laws incorporate more research-backed ideas like coaching, while other endorsed approaches are more suspect. There is no clear amount of time that research shows should be spent daily on phonics, no established curriculum for the “science of reading” and studies on so-called decodable books — strongly endorsed by some phonics advocates to help young students practice letter-sound combinations — have their own mixed research track record.”

There probably are some good ideas hidden in the SoR movement but it is certainly not settled-science nor the best way to teach reading. Billionaires are not invested in improving reading instruction. The SoR movement is another avenue for undermining local control in education doctrine and empowers private companies over state run universities.

Billionaire Team  

  1. National Center on Teacher Quality was formed in 2000(Tax ID: 04-3536571).
    •  2021 tax form lists 2 executives on their highest paid list: Kate Walsh (former president) $259,877 and Ashley Kincade $170,044.
    • Major funders include Charles and Lynn Schusterman, Joyce Foundation, Laura and John Arnold and the Walton Family Foundation.
    • Reported donations totaled $2,378,006.
  2. The 74 Media, Inc. was formed in 2013 with non-profit tax ID:47-2788684.
    • Top executive pay includes Steven Snyder $264,968, James Roberts $265,348, Kathleen Moore O’Connor $153,341, Beverly Weintraub $184,245, Dena Wilson $142,548, Laurel Hawkins $148,632 and Emmeline Zhao $142,407.
    • Major funding comes from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the City Fund and the Walton Family Foundation.
    • Reported donations totaled $4,466,877.
  3. EdReports Org Inc. was formed in 2014 with non-profit tax ID: 47-1171149.
    • Top executive pay includes Eric Hirsh $304,596, Donnidra Johnson $196,788, Janna Chan $179,055, Courtney Allison $192,521 and Lauren Weisskirk $192,212.
    • Major funding comes from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Broadcom Corporation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, Overdeck Family Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
    • Reported donations totaled $7,419,702.
  4. Chiefs for Change was formed in 2014 with non-profit tax ID 47-2373903.
    • Top executive pay includes Leila Walsh $262,885, Robert Runcie (interim CEO) $208,930, Jamar Knox $253,457, Stephanie Zamorano $206,788, Kimberly Tang $188,753, Danielle Durban $198,705, Makese Motley $166,383 and Michael McGee (CEO thru 4/29/2022) $132,180.
    • Major funding from Walton Family Foundation, Overdeck Family Foundation, Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Blue Meridian Partners and Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
    • Reported donations totaled $24,294,635.

Wrapping Up

This report was produced and promoted by billionaire-created and funded organizations. Major funders listed are either billionaires or billionaire funded dark-money organizations. They pay big wages with an agenda and that does not support locally-controlled public schools. Worse, this is one small team, out of many, financed by the same people.

SoR has errors and is not settled-science. Balanced literacy probably has a better track record based on what works investigations.

Billionaires spend big money to continue chipping at local control … unconcerned about good education, only regarding national standards and control as important.

And … some want to end publicly-financed education!

Time to tax billionaires out of existence???

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