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Nancy Bailey's Education Website

Revive, Rally and Recover Public Schools

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The Learning Disability Teaching Credentials that Time Forgot

June 4, 2019 By Nancy Bailey 25 Comments

Whether it’s dyslexia (a specific learning disability) or writing, attention, organization, or other learning and behavioral difficulties, children who struggle in school need teachers who can help them learn. Sometimes that help can occur in a general class setting. Other times a child might benefit from small group or individualized assistance. That’s what special education […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: class size, dyslexia, General Education Teachers, learning disabilities, resource classrooms, special education teacher education, Teacher Preparation, teachers with credentials in learning disabilities

The PBS NewsHour/Education Week Report About Dyslexia: Biased & Short on Facts

May 14, 2019 By Nancy Bailey 31 Comments

Schools must provide adequate reading programs and reading remediation for students who need more assistance. But the recent report on dyslexia recommending intensive phonics for all children by the PBS News Hour, through Education Week, is irresponsible, short on facts, and presents biased reporting. Education Week receives grants from philanthropic groups that favor school privatization. Here are […]

Filed Under: Featured, Uncategorized Tagged With: decoding dyslexia, dyslexia, Education Week, intensive phonics, PBS News Hour, reading, reading difficulties, Standardization, teachers who teach reading, the teaching of reading

Reading Instruction, The Attack on Teachers, and Two Areas of Concern

March 10, 2019 By Nancy Bailey 24 Comments

Almost every day there’s another report attacking teachers for how they teach reading. It divides parents and teachers. It’s also dangerous at a time when there’s a teacher shortage and teachers are banding together to try to save not only their profession, but public education. I don’t like to see my profession criticized so harshly […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: dyslexia, For-Profit Colleges, phonics, Reading Instruction, science of reading, Teach for America

Despite F Ratings, Dyslexia Charter School Has Gotten Repeated State Approval

September 17, 2018 By Nancy Bailey Leave a Comment

Interest in charter schools for students with disabilities is on the rise. Will such schools destroy the Individuals with Disabilities Act’s (IDEA) rights of children? IDEA is the reauthorization of the 1975 Public Law 94-142. While parents might be dissatisfied with dyslexia programming in public schools, how can they be assured charter schools will provide […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: charter school regulation, charter school transparency, charter schools, Charter Schools for Dyslexia, dyslexia, learning disabilities, special education, Special Education Charter Schools, The Louisiana Key Academy

Response to Intervention’s Role in the Texas Special Education Scandal: What are Other States Doing?

August 24, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 7 Comments

Whenever we read or hear about special education in public schools, it is important to remember, that since the beginning of Public Law 94-142 (IDEA) in 1975, many policymakers have resisted funding services for students who learn differently. The bill was so unpopular that President Gerald Ford refused to have a Rose Garden signing. Since that […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: dyslexia, learning disabilities, Response to Intervention (RTI), special education, SPED Services, SPEDx, Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Preparing Teachers to Teach Reading: What Happened?

May 31, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 13 Comments

It’s easier to be ideological if you don’t have children sitting in front of you day after day. When you’re trying an approach and it’s not working, you have to back up and say, ‘I have to try something else.’ You can’t say [students] don’t fit the program. ~Dottie Fowler, a 15-year veteran teacher, 1998 […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alternative reading programs, Common Core, dyslexia, Education Week, NCLB, Race to the Top, reading, Reading Preparation Programs, Teach for America, The Learning First Alliance

How Did We Learn to Read? Is There a Teacher to Thank?

May 8, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 15 Comments

The debate surrounding how to teach children to read is ongoing. What we tend to forget and ignore is how we learned to read ourselves. I think it’s important to address what helped make us the readers we are today, or what problems we encountered. Perhaps we can recall what worked, and what didn’t, by […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: books, dyslexia, Learning to Read, libraries, reading, reading difficulties

Teach Cursive Writing! Why It’s Important for Children Including Those with Dyslexia

January 13, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 38 Comments

Cursive writing is important for many reasons, and its loss in America’s classrooms should raise concerns. Cursive not only differs from print in the way it looks, it connects letters to words in a meaningful and productive way. It has been shown to assist children with reading difficulties like dyslexia. All students benefit by learning […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: attention, Common Core, Cursive Writing, diaries, dyslexia, focus, handwriting, Journals, Laptops, reading difficulties, spatial relationship, spelling, Technology, visual memory, visual perception, visual synthesis, Visual-motor coordination, writing

Betsy DeVos Goes Trick or Treating for Dyslexia

October 31, 2017 By Nancy Bailey 9 Comments

US Senator Bill Cassidy MD (R-LA) and his wife Dr. Laura Cassidy recently met with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and dyslexia and learning disability organizations to discuss serving children with dyslexia. It’s important to remember five things. Public schools used to do more for students with learning disabilities. Resource classes, general education support, and certified […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Choice, dyslexia, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, learning disabilities, public schools, Sen. Bill Cassidy MD (R-LA), vouchers

When it Comes to Special Education Deregulations, Watch DeVos Like a Hawk!

September 22, 2017 By Nancy Bailey 2 Comments

In the beginning, Betsy DeVos didn’t seem to understand IDEA. Now it looks like she is out to get rid of it! Here is her recent statement in response to an Education Week writer’s question about reauthorizing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. I think Congress needs to seriously look at the commitment they made […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Autism, Betsy DeVos, Deregulating IDEA, Deregulations and Betsy DeVos, dyslexia, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, learning disabilities, Reauthorizing IDEA, Special Education Funding

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