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Reading for Profit
How the Bottom Line Leaves Kids Behind

Bess Altwerger, Towson University

ISBN 978-0-325-00792-2 / 0-325-00792-6 / 2005 / 272pp / Paperback
Imprint: Heinemann
Availability: In Stock

Grade Level: K-6

List Price: $25.00
Online Price: $20.00

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Description
    Why is reading instruction so often focused on the mechanical transmission of skills rather than on the development of meaningful literacy? To understand why, we need to know who: who decides how children will be taught, and who benefits from that decision? Reading for Profit demonstrates conclusively that the pedagogical is political.
    —Alfie Kohn, Author of The Case Against Standardized Testing and The Schools Our Children Deserve
    Filled with teachers' voices and an eye-opening analysis, this timely book reveals the corporate assault on schools, children's reading education, and teachers' effectiveness.
    —Gerald Coles, Author of Reading the Naked Truth and Misreading Reading
    The Manufactured Crisis and The War Against America's Public Schools were angry books. This is a furious book. The extensive evidence it mounts to describe this attempt renders it an accurate book.
    —Gerald W. Bracey, Author of Setting the Record Straight, Second Edition
    This book documents the corporate connections and exposes their motivations, documents the fear and frustration that experienced and highly competent teachers feel, and repeatedly and thoroughly documents the failings of the programs. These are the voices the public needs to hear.
    —Stephen Krashen, Author of The Power of Reading, Second Edition
    Kudos to Bess Altwerger for this remarkable collection.... This book arms us to fight back.
    —Susan Ohanian, Author of Why Is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools? and One Size Fits Few

Lead your practice, your school, or your district toward a return to professionalism and away from faceless literacy programs designed with dividends in mind. Get informed with Reading for Profit; read studies that prove NCLB and other reforms hurt kids, and learn how to initiate the change your students need.

Table of Contents
    1. Reading for Profit: A Corporate Coup in Context, Bess Altwerger
    I. The Business Behind Mandated Reading Programs
    2. Heads They Win; Tails We Lose, Carole Edelsky and Randy Bomer
    3. Scientific Flimflam: A Who’s Who of Entrepreneurial Research, Elaine Garan
    4. Operation No Child Left Behind, Steven L. Strauss
    5. Follow the Money: Reading First Grants in Pennsylvania, Patrick Shannon and Jacqueline Edmondson
    II. Scientific Research on "Scientifically Based" Reading Programs
    6. Scripted Reading Instruction: Help or Hindrance?, Robert Land and Margaret Moustafa
    7. The Influence of Decodable Texts on Readers’ Strategies, Prisca Martens and Yetta Goodman
    8. Invisible Teacher/Invisible Children: The Company Line, Richard J. Meyer
    9. Basal Reading Programs and the Culture of Literacy, Nancy Jordan
    10. An Open Look at the Open Court Program, Poonam Arya, Barbara Laster, and Lijun Jin
    11. Teachers’ Perspectives on Open Court, Katherine Davies Samway and Lucinda Pease-Alvarez
    12. The Rich Get Richer; the Poor Get Direct Instruction, Curt Dudley-Marling and Pat Paugh
    13. The Impact of Reading Mastery on Children’s Reading Strategies, G. Pat Wilson, Nancy W. Wiltz, and Debora Lang
    14. First Do No Harm: Teachers’ Reactions to Mandated Reading Mastery, Nancy Rankie Shelton
    III. Reading for Profit or Reading for Children?
    15. "Gracias por la oportunidad, pero voy a buscar otro trabajo . . ." A Beginning Teacher Resists High-Stakes Curriculum, Nadeen T. Ruiz and Lorena Morales-Ellis
    16. Proven Programs, Profits, and Practice: Ten Unprofitable but Scientific Strategies for Improving Reading Achievement, Richard L. Allington
    17. Honor Thy Teachers, Joanne Yatvin
    18. The Power of Literature Discussion, Karen K. Brown. Call to Action, Bess Altwerger
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