Why cant U teach me 2 read? - Beth Fertig

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Why cant U teach me 2 read?

Three Students and a Mayor Put Our Schools to the Test

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, September 2009
ISBN: 978-0-374-29905-7, ISBN10: 0-374-29905-6,
6 x 9 inches, 368 pages, Includes Notes and a Bibliography,
Hardcover, $27.00

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A person who cannot read cannot confidently ride a city bus, shop, take medicine, or hold a job—much less receive e-mail, follow headlines, send text messages, or write a letter to a relative. And yet the best minds of American education cannot agree on the right way for reading to be taught. In fact, education experts can hardly settle on a common vocabulary to use in talking about reading. As a result, for a quarter of a century American schools have been riven by what educators call "the reading wars," and our young people have been caught in the crossfire.

Why cant U teach me 2 read? focuses on three such students. Yamilka, Alejandro, and Antonio all have learning disabilities, and all legally challenged the New York City schools for failing to teach them to read by the time they got to high school. When the school system's own hearing officers ruled in the students' favor, the city was compelled to pay for the three students, now young adults, to receive intensive private tutoring.

Fertig tells the inspiring, heartbreaking stories of these three young people as they struggle to learn to read before it is too late. At the same time, she tells a story of great change in schools nationwide—where the crush of standardized tests and the presence of technocrats like New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and his schools chancellor, Joel Klein, have energized teachers and parents to question the meaning of education as never before. And she dramatizes the process of learning to read, showing how the act of reading is nothing short of miraculous.

Along the way, Fertig makes clear that the simple question facing students and teachers alike—How should young people learn to read?—opens onto the broader questions of what schools are really for and why so many of America's schools are faltering.

Praise

"An NPR reporter tackles the often overlooked American illiteracy problem through the stories of three students and one very troubled school system. For 23-year-old Yamilka, illiteracy was literally crippling. Because she couldn't perform basic cashier's tasks, figure out her medication or even read the subway signs, she was essentially captive in her Bronx home. Astoundingly, Yamilka is a high-school graduate with a diploma in hand from the New York City public-school system. Her brother, Alejandro, and another student, Antonio, had similar experiences. All had learning disabilities that went undiagnosed or untreated for years, and all three were raised in Spanish-speaking families by parents who didn't know how to advocate for them during their schooling. In many ways, these are still remarkable cases. Fertig found them because they had all legally challenged the school system for their illiteracy and won hundreds of thousands of dollars in private tutoring—it's terrifying to think that there are many other students in similar situations who haven't gone to such lengths to rectify their situation. The author's chronicle of their private education gives fascinating insight into what went wrong in their public education. With enough time and attention from professionals who went to great lengths to figure out how they learned, each student became functional if not avid readers. Fertig tries to reconcile these methods with the problems facing the NYC public-school system, and emerges with a surprisingly optimistic look at the future of education. While large urban school systems will never have the resources that private tutors were able to give to these three students, both MayorBloomberg's improvements to the NYC public-school system and the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act offer hope that at least the situation may soon become less dire. Carefully considered treatment of a troubling subject that will be particularly useful to educators and policymakers."—Kirkus Reviews

"Public radio reporter Fertig offers a view of the crisis in education through the lens of three young adults struggling with literacy. Yamilka, Alejandro, and Antonio, all products of New York public schools, legally challenged the system when it failed to teach them to read, securing special tutoring arrangements designed to compensate for years of neglect. Fertig intersperses their accounts with the politics of education reform in New York during the mayoral administration of Michael Bloomberg. A new data system and decentralization were part of the city’s efforts to reform itself and keep track of thousands of mostly minority and poor students who fall through the cracks—some eventually graduating, though they cannot read. Fertig details the heartbreaking struggles of the three students, who can barely read subway signs but long for careers in the military, entrepreneurship, and catering. Fertig also details various learning disabilities and historical and current research on techniques for teaching reading skills the role of standardized tests, and the impact of video games and the Internet on reading skills. She notes that 'debates about reading are often really about the best ways to help children overcome poverty and the legacy of racism.'”—Booklist (starred review)

"New York City radio journalist Fertig delves deeply into the success and failure of the federal No Child Left Behind Policy implemented by President George W. Bush in 2002, especially as Mayor Michael Bloomberg took up the challenge to improve reading, writing and math skills in New York City public schools. Using the case studies of three impoverished students of Dominican descent—Yamilka, 23; her brother Alejandro, 19; and Antonio, 18, who all came through these high schools and remained largely illiterate despite an enormous enlistment of school services (Yamilka, for example, was later awarded $120,000 worth of tutoring hours for 'educational neglect')—Fertig unearths some knotty issues affecting the scholastic success of inner-city students, such as English as a second language, family environment and, especially, misdiagnosis of learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Fertig looks closely at how corporate-minded Bloomberg shook up the system: forcing schools to demonstrate annual progress by testing and by gathering specific data (implementation of ARIS, the Achievement Reporting and Innovations System); sanctions for schools not performing; grading of schools in terms of their students' progress. The outrage was predictable, but the improvements surprising and real. Fertig tracks the efficacy of the 'balanced literary' approach to reading and the harmful effects of text messaging and e-mail, for an overall excellent, thoroughly grounding survey of the state of literacy and education."—Publishers Weekly

About the Author(s)

Beth Fertig

Beth Fertig is a senior reporter for WNYC Radio in New York, the nation's largest public radio station, and a regular contributor to National Public Radio. She has won many awards for her reporting, including the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award for her coverage of the New York City public schools. Her reporting on the September 11 attacks won her the affection of countless public radio listeners nationwide. A native New Yorker, she is a graduate of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and has a master’s degree from the University of Chicago.

Video

The Students - Beth Fertig's Why cant U teach me 2 read?

Beth Fertig introduces the main characters of WHY CANT U TEACH ME 2 READ? (Thank you to Matt Levine, Tim Robbins and Max Weissman of Departure Films and to editor Patricia Sunshine.)

Watch Video (Duration: 2:42)

The Mayor - Beth Fertig's Why cant U teach me 2 read?

Beth Fertig discusses the school reforms of New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg. (Departure Films, ed: Patricia Sunshine.)

Duration: 1:26Watch Video

The Challenge - Beth Fertig's Why cant U teach me 2 read?

Beth Fertig explains the relationship between Bloomberg's reforms and the Obama administration's plans for national education policy. (Departure Films, ed: Patricia Sunshine)

Duration: 0:53Watch Video