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Nancy Bailey's Education Website

Revive, Rally and Recover Public Schools

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The Comprehension Problem with New Reading Programs: Ignoring the Books Children LIKE to Read!

June 24, 2024 By Nancy Bailey 18 Comments

I’m not a gambler, but if I were, I’d bet that a lot of parents whose elementary school-age children are getting explicit phonics instruction, memorizing rules, and who can define words like diphthong and schwa will be disappointed when their children get to high school and couldn’t care less about reading. New reading programs promising […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: balanced literacy, comprehension, Corporations, politicizing reading, Reading Teachers, school libraries, science of reading

Stuck on the Merry-Go-Round of Bad Ed. Policy for 40 Years!

May 6, 2024 By Nancy Bailey 9 Comments

Can you imagine never being able to jump off a Merry Go Round? The fight over education policy is like that. It involves the same worn-out problems that could have been addressed years ago if Americans truly got behind their democratic public schools. The middle class and the poor, Democrats and Republicans, who understand the […]

Filed Under: Featured, Uncategorized Tagged With: Bad Ed. Policy, careers, charter schools, Choice, class size, Classroom resources, curriculum, data, poverty, Professional Teachers, race, reading, Religion, school facilities, school libraries, special education, standardized tests, Technology, the arts, third grade retention

Little-Discussed Reasons Why Students Might Not Like to Read

July 19, 2023 By Nancy Bailey 23 Comments

Students don’t like to read. These rarely discussed reasons may explain why. Kindergarten is no longer a garden.    Kindergartners are pressured to read. Before NCLB, over twenty years ago, this was unheard of and still makes no sense. Formal reading instruction once began in first grade. Children in the not-too-distant past were given time to […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: analyzing reading, Close Reading, hazing, high-stakes standardized tests and reading, Kindergarten reading, phonics, reading, reading choices, reading difficulties, reading interest, school gimmicks, school libraries, Students dislike reading, technology and reading, third grade retention

Reading Aloud to Help Children Read Well Their Whole Lives!

August 17, 2022 By Nancy Bailey 12 Comments

Every new parent should get a copy of Jim Trelease’s The Read-Aloud Handbook. Teachers should have a copy too. In honor of the late Trelease, parent and award-winning artist, writer, and author, it’s important to point out that his well-documented research lives on encouraging reading aloud to children, even babies, to foster a lifelong love […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: books, dyslexia, early reading, early reading programs, Jim Trelease, learning disabilities, libraries, online reading programs, phonics, reading aloud to children, reading books, school libraries, The read-aloud handbook, whole language

The Dangerous End of School Libraries and Public Education

February 18, 2022 By Nancy Bailey 4 Comments

School libraries are critical to maintaining great democratic public schools. The loss of school libraries threatens their existence and a student’s right to receive information. See the American Library Association and The Universal Right to Free Expression: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights.  Many public schools no longer have functioning school libraries or qualified […]

Filed Under: Featured, Uncategorized Tagged With: Boston Public Schools, Corporate Agenda for Public Schools, Corporate education reform, future ready schools, Online Learning, Philadelphia Public Schools, Public School Privatization, Public School Transformation, School Librarians, school libraries

10 Ways to Help Children ENJOY Reading!

January 25, 2022 By Nancy Bailey 9 Comments

The focus for children learning to read, sometimes undervalued by those concerned about phonics, is instilling a joy of reading. The ultimate goal should be that children are able to read and like it. Phonics is important, especially when children have reading disabilities, but it shouldn’t stand alone. Science of Reading (SoR) supporters will argue that […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: audiobooks, Motivation, nonfiction and fiction books, phonics, reading, reading enjoyment, reading logs, reading rewards, Reading Wars, school libraries, speaking, sustained silent reading (SSR), UCL study

Public School “Reimagine” and “Revolution” Hypocrisy: Put Them Out to Pasture!

April 19, 2020 By Nancy Bailey 18 Comments

Teachers and parents on the frontlines of this pandemic should be given control of how their schools are reimagined in the future. When this crisis ends, they should be given the voice on how to bring back democratic public schools and make them their own. Any revolution surrounding schools is theirs. Those who foisted unproven and […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: a public school revolution, charter schools, Common Core, counselors, high-stakes testing, One-size-fits-all, Online Instruction, past school reforms, reimagine public schools, School Librarians, school libraries, School Nurses, teachers, vouchers

There’s No “Science of Reading” Without School Libraries and Librarians, A Predictor of Student Success

March 1, 2020 By Nancy Bailey 38 Comments

The loss of libraries and qualified librarians in the poorest schools has reached a critical mass. Yet those who promote a Science of Reading (SoR), often supporting online reading programs, never mention the loss of school libraries or qualified librarians. Ignoring the importance of school libraries and certified librarians delegitimizes any SoR. Children need books, […]

Filed Under: Featured, Uncategorized Tagged With: online reading programs, qualified school librarians, school libraries, science of reading

Problematic “Scientific Based” Phonics: The Flawed National Reading Panel

October 16, 2019 By Nancy Bailey 16 Comments

It’s odd and detrimental that the National Reading Panel is highlighted in reports as science, used to promote phonics and criticize how teachers teach reading. It has become so intense that teachers are being advised to drop certain reading methods to focus solely on “systematic, explicit phonics!” The NRP was discredited long ago. Why it’s […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Common Core, IDEA, Loss of School Librarians, National Reading Panel, NCLB, No Child Left Behind, NRP, phonics, Reading Instruction, School Librarians, school libraries, science readiing, Technology

11 Problems Facing Students as They Return to School

August 24, 2019 By Nancy Bailey 2 Comments

If you support our students, the next generation, and a democratic public education system that we all own, it’s tough to watch the changes corporate reformers have caused in schools. They’re not the ideas that most parents and teachers support, so we wonder why they’re implemented. Most of the problems that exist in public schools […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: art music drama and dance in school, better safety measures in school, crumbling school buildings, kindergarten expectations, Lead in school drinking water, School Librarians, school libraries, shooting drills in schools, strict rules in school, Zero Tolerance

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An education glossary with an attitude.

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front cover

Do we really want an America where we no longer own our public schools?

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front cover

This book says “no” to the reforms that fail, and challenges Americans to address the real student needs that will fix public schools and make America strong.

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