The On-Ramp to Reading
“Its very clear to me that Afi understands the difference between some of what she’s doing guided by me, and that she’s getting a new skill. This is different because she is reading, like her grandchildren.” Ruth Robarts is a lifelong teacher…
Continue reading →3,888 (43.7%) Madison 4k to 3rd graders scored below the 25th percentile in a 2024-2025 national literacy comparison group. The Wisconsin average is 37% or 97,414 students. Note that Madison plans to spend > $28K per student during the 2025-2026 school year.…
Continue reading →Every parent wants a straight answer to one question: does this actually work, and why? We’ve put that answer in one place. Why Fast Lane Literacy Works, lays out the three principles behind every lesson: Evidence-Based Instruction — built on Science of…
Continue reading →Part 1 of a conversation (excerpt) with Christine Truman Janes during Wimbledon 2026. Soundtrack via Wimbledon Radio, the rest a “mash up”.
Continue reading →Rose Horowitch: This shift is often referred to as a literacy crisis. And it’s true that Americans’ basic reading skills are declining. Fourth- and eighth-grade reading scores have slid for the past decade. Amanda Kordeliski, who is on the board of the…
Continue reading →Katy Purviance: A researcher at Williams College set out to study variations in curiosity across elementary school classrooms. She had to abandon the study. The problem was not funding or methodology. As researcher Susan Engel later noted, there was such an astonishingly…
Continue reading →The Economist: At their simplest, its tests find out how well people can make sense of the instructions on a pill bottle, or work out how much wallpaper they must buy to redecorate a room. At more advanced levels, they explore how…
Continue reading →By Russell Samora. Design & Illustration by Shelly Tan.: Similes are all around us. But, if you haven’t considered this figure of speech since grade school, here’s a refresher: similes compare a shared quality of two things, often using “like” or “as.”…
Continue reading →Samantha Erstad: Director of Teaching and Learning Katie Grundahl presented findings from early childhood literacy screening data for 4K through 3rd grade students to the School District of Jefferson Board of Education. “This is the required assessment by the state of Wisconsin…
Continue reading →Jenny Peek: The gravity of Madison’s literacy crisis didn’t come into focus for Patterson until she became a literacy teacher leader with the Madison Metropolitan School District; before that she had been teaching fourth and fifth grade for 15 years. “You kind…
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