A Cost-Effective Proposal to Improve Public Education in Iowa

Published in TH Media, Telegraph Herald – Dubuque, IA – 10/19/14

Readers who listen to Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion will recognize the close to his weekly monologue:   “Well, that’s the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the children are above average.” While we have all become accustomed to Mr. Keillor’s weekly broadcast, “above average” is not an educational goal to which the citizens of our state should aspire.

With great regularity, we are reminded how our public education system is failing. We read that standardized test scores have declined, and that, in Iowa, nearly 80% of college-bound high school graduates are underprepared for academic work at the next level. Blame for this news is often misdirected at public school teachers and administrators. Partisans tend to offer highly politicized solutions ranging from proposals to decertify the teacher’s union to pleas for larger appropriations from the state legislature. Meanwhile, amidst the squabbling and blaming, our children continue to be cycled through a system that can be improved.

It is true that standardized test scores have declined over the last several decades. It is also true that reasons for that decline may have more to do with the changing demographics of our state than with the oft-alleged incompetency of those whose vocation it is to teach and nurture students. Family structures have changed over these decades as well. There are more single parent families, many more dual income households, and families where English is not the primary language of communication. There are also more children that have been diagnosed with learning disabilities who attend our public education system. Understanding the reasons for the underperformance and then identifying an effective policy response is always complicated, but it isn’t as complex as it is portrayed to be. [bctt tweet=”Don’t be mistaken, identifying an effective policy response is never as complex as it is portrayed to be. ” via=”no”]

Take dyslexia as just one example. Dyslexia is a disability that is often characterized by difficulty reading. Children who have dyslexia see words written on a page much differently than children without dyslexia. There is something that happens in a dyslexic child’s brain that confuses speech sounds with their translation into letters and words. What eighty percent of the population reads as “I want to ride a bike,” the other twenty percent of the population who are dyslexic might see as “I wart to nide a hike.” Because we know that up to third grade children learn to read, and that after third grade, children read to learn, children who struggle with reading will consistently have challenges learning other subjects as well.

It’s unfortunate that the state of Iowa, once a national educational leader, does not recognize that nearly one-in-five children in every classroom across this state are challenged by dyslexia. This policy failure denies dyslexic children the early remediation that has been documented to improve their ability to manage this learning challenge. These strategies don’t cure dyslexia, but they do aid a child in his or her ability to “read to learn” post third grade. Requiring mandatory screening for dyslexia and other disabilities, and adding a cadre of reading specialists and special educators to intervene once dyslexia and other disabilities are diagnosed pre-third grade, will markedly improve a student’s ability “to read to learn” post-third grade.

This simple intervention will radically transform the educational experience for 20% of our students, and the financial impact to tax payers will be unnoticeable. The end result will be better-educated students who have developed a passion for learning, teachers who re-experience the joy of sharing their knowledge, and a public system of education that is again the best in our country.