NSW: Thank goodness journalists are listening to Dr Jennifer Buckingham - L3 programme not working

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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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NSW: Thank goodness journalists are listening to Dr Jennifer Buckingham - L3 programme not working

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

This is a very important article which raises a number of significant issues - not least being one of accountability for official persistence in using reading programmes based on concepts similar to the flawed Reading Recovery programme:

https://www.smh.com.au/education/a-nsw- ... 4zi4b.html
A NSW reading program could be lowering NAPLAN scores

By Pallavi Singhal
A NSW Department of Education reading program for students in kindergarten to year 2 that has never been evaluated is negatively affecting NAPLAN scores and students' long-term reading ability, teachers and principals say.

Less than half of 247 respondents to a survey of educators think the Language, Learning and Literacy (L3) program is effective for all children, according to a new report by the Centre of Independent Studies.

Additionally, about 30 per cent of the educators said they felt they could not raise concerns about L3 with their school.

"L3 has not been rigorously evaluated for effectiveness, but the existing data is not positive," the CIS report states.

"The reported data suggest that the [Early Action for Success] strategy, which includes L3, has not been successful in raising literacy levels ... 77 per cent of schools that joined EAfS in 2013 had either negligible or negative change in Year 3 NAPLAN reading scores [according to a 2015 department evaluation]."
Do read the whole piece - it's not long. Read what Dr Jennifer Buckingham says about this state of affairs.

I have added the red colour above. This is because I have a lot of sympathy with teachers who are concerned about the curriculum and methods they are expected to use which are not in line with their knowledge and understanding about reading instruction. This happened to me when the National Literacy Strategy was rolled out in England in 1998 and I asked advisors and those in charge for the research findings to support the 'Searchlights' multi-cueing word-guessing guidance. I have quite a story to tell about the responses of advisors charged with the duty of rolling out the NLS! Needless to say, years later, Minister Nick Gibb listened to people like me and looked into our claims about the research not supporting multi-cueing for word-guessing - instead research summarised that phonics needed to be taught systematically and explicitly. The rest is history in England - but in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, the battle continues in spite of the findings of a body of research.
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: NSW: Thank goodness journalists are listening to Dr Jennifer Buckingham - L3 programme not working

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

Here is a very short youtube video (only two minutes long!) about the L3 literacy programme - drawing attention to the worrying lack of evidence about its efficacy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtQs42up5Lg
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: NSW: Thank goodness journalists are listening to Dr Jennifer Buckingham - L3 programme not working

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

Here is the 'Five from Five' research brief of the L3 programme:

http://www.fivefromfive.org.au/wp-conte ... ief-l3.pdf
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