{"id":21822,"date":"2022-11-18T08:30:28","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T13:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=21822"},"modified":"2022-11-18T13:21:36","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T18:21:36","slug":"latest-reading-scores-leave-room-for-debate-on-ncs-investment-in-science-of-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/latest-reading-scores-leave-room-for-debate-on-ncs-investment-in-science-of-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest reading scores leave room for debate on NC\u2019s investment in science of reading"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When Mississippi&#8217;s fourth-grade reading test scores climbed after investment in teacher training, North Carolina schools took notice and, in 2021, invested $50 million in the LETRS program, Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling. But analyzing test scores alone can be deceiving, according to Furman University&#8217;s Paul Thomas, a longtime public school educator and professor of education at the university. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfae.org\/education\/2022-11-17\/latest-reading-scores-leave-room-for-debate-on-ncs-investment-in-science-of-reading\">Charlotte NPR news station WFAE 90.7<\/a> turned to Thomas for his perspective on the &#8220;science of reading&#8221; approach after the latest test scores were released by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka &#8220;the nations report card,&#8221; that showed a decline in proficiency for North Carolina fourth-graders in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>A skeptic of standardized testing and science of reading tactics, Thomas argues for making sure weak readers have smaller classes and experienced teachers, and for the nation as a whole to make inroads toward combating poverty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ann Doss Helms of Charlotte NPR station turns to Paul Thomas after new reading statistics are issued by &#8220;the nation&#8217;s report card.&#8221; Thomas says a focus on standardized testing and rigorous teacher training programs ignore the underlying problems associated with low reading proficiency in our nation&#8217;s schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":21825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1685,28,74,6,1684],"tags":[1686,837,838,840,1687],"class_list":["post-21822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-charlotte-npr-affiliate","category-education","category-graduate-studies-in-education","category-in-the-news","category-wfae-90-7","tag-ltrs","tag-naep","tag-reading-proficiency","tag-science-of-reading","tag-standardized-testing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}