Just as every Oregon student is so much more than a statistic, every signature on the Oregon Kids Read petition represents a personal story.
Please take a minute to sign if you haven’t already and leave a comment. Sharing our experiences is one of the most effective ways to move others to action:
Our daughter struggled with literacy and was well below her benchmark. Without outside tutoring on phonics, I’m not sure she would have caught up in time. We strongly believe every child should have access to this proven method of learning to read.
I care about equity in learning and I am not afraid to try something different if what we are currently doing isn’t reaching all learners.
I’m signing because as a former Reading Specialist in a Title 1 public school here in Oregon, I sat everyday elbow to elbow with students who desperately wanted to read and I did not have the right tools, resources or training to reach each of them and that, for me, was incredibly heartbreaking as well as extremely frustrating. As educators (and that most definitely includes folks at district, state and university levels) we must avail ourselves of the current neuroscience research into how the brain reads and incorporate that knowledge as a critical building block in developing our teaching practices around reading. So many students are counting on us to do better.
Thanks for reading!
Angela