Phalse claims about phonics

Impact of "synthetic" phonics wears off.
Sent to the Guardian, April 25

The Centre for Economic Performance study did NOT show that "Phonics method helps close attainment gap,"  (April 24). It found just the opposite: By the time children were 11 years old, there was no difference between those who had "synthetic" phonics instruction and those who had different approaches. (in synthetic phonics, children are taught how letters are pronounced in isolation, before reading words.)
In addition, the synthetic phonics advantage began to disappear quite early: 5 year olds showed an obvious impact of phonics instruction, but the effect was clearly weaker by age 7.
The Guardian article also reported that synthetic phonics was "markedly successful" for groups from "deprived backgrounds" even at age 11. But the effect for this group was weak, clearly on its way to disappearing.
UK Children's Laureate Michael Rosen is quoted as saying that reading for pleasure is the most powerful way of building reading competence. Research consistently supports this statement, and explains why children of poverty don't do as well on reading tests: lack of access to reading material.

Stephen Krashen

Original article: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/apr/25/phonics-method-helps-close-attainment-gap-study-finds

Does an app do a better job than books and people?

Published in the Daily Bulletin, Pomona, CA April 27
The Early Learning Literacy App: Is it worth it?
Pomona Unified "is helping low-income preschoolers bridge ‘30-million word gap’" (April 24) with a commercial product from Footsteps2  Brilliance, The "Early Learning Literacy App". The app contains stories, songs and games and claims to develop literacy in young children.
Not mentioned is the consistent research finding that a print-rich environment with old-fashioned books, people who will read aloud to children, and free time for pleasure reading produces fantastic results in literacy development, including vocabulary development. 
On their website, Footsteps2 Brilliance describes a study in which literacy app students made better gains than untreated comparison subjects, but there is no evidence that the literacy app does a better job than real books and people.
Also not mentioned is the fact that the app costs between $250,00 to $350,000 per district. This information is also not included in the Footsteps website: I found it in an article in the Boston Globe.

Stephen Krashen

Original article: http://www.dailybulletin.com/social-affairs/20160424/how-pomona-unified-is-helping-low-income-preschoolers-bridge-30-million-word-gap

Letter: http://www.dailybulletin.com/opinion/20160511/inland-empire-needs-projects-like-empire-lakes-letters

Boston Globe article: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/north/2013/10/12/young-malden-students-get-into-reading-with-footsteps-brilliance-literacy-program/y8HYokGXsprKOO3OwbejcP/story.html

More on the so-called shortage of computer science grads: Hal Salzman

A petition to the US Congress, signed by Zuckerberg, Gates and others, for more computer science education is based on their claim of a huge shortage of computer science grads, which I have contested (http://skrashen.blogspot.com/2016/05/are-there-really-500000-computer-jobs.html)

Hal Salzman (Rutgers University) sent me his conclusion, from his statement  from his testimony submitted to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, 25 February 2016  at the hearing on "The Impact of High-Skilled Immigration on U.S. Workers."

http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3474CXX

"Current graduation rates indicate that projected employment demand specifically for computer science (CS) graduates can be met by about half of the current supply of 65,000 to 70,000 CS graduates (with at least a bachelor’s degree) each year, and the balance of demand can be met by those graduating with a range of other degrees, as is the historical pattern. Even if current industry hiring is for a much greater level of computer scientists than historical hiring patterns, the current pool of graduates would provide sufficient numbers of computer scientists to meet industry demand."

Want an "excellent proposal"? invest in libraries and librarians.

Sent to the Australian Financial Review May 1

The London School of Economics study, contrary to the description in  "Simon Birmingham's 'excellent proposal'," (May 1), did NOT show a strong effect for phonics.  The positive impact wore off quickly, and was largely gone by grade 5. This result is consistent with other research showing that intensive phonics instruction only helps children on tests in which they pronounce words out-loud presented to them in a list.  It does not help them on tests in which they have to understand what they read.  Research consistently shows that the cause of real reading ability is doing a lot of self-selected pleasure reading.
Australian schools don't need phonics checks. They need a greater investment in libraries and librarians.  For children of poverty, the library is often their only source of reading material.

Stephen Krashen
Professor Emeritus
University of Southern California

original article: http://www.afr.com/leadership/innovation/simon-birminghams-excellent-proposal-a-phonics-test-for-year-1-students-20160501-goj8ps#ixzz47Sc3lYes

Some sources:
Other research on phonics: Garan, E. (2001). Beyond the smoke and mirrors: A critique of the National Reading Panel report on phonics. Phi Delta Kappan 82, no. 7 (March), 500-506. Krashen, S. 2009. Does intensive decoding instruction contribute to reading comprehension? Knowledge Quest 37 (4): 72-74.
Self-selected pleasure reading: Krashen, S. 2004. The Power of Reading. Second edition. Portsmouth: Heinemann and Westport: Libraries Unlimited; Lee, S. Y. 2007. Revelations from Three Consecutive Studies on Extensive Reading. Regional Language Center (RELC) Journal , 38 (2), 150-170.
Impact of libraries: Lance, Keith. The Impact of School Libraries on Student Achievement. http://www.lrs.org/impact.php; Krashen, S, Lee, S.Y. and McQuillan, J. 2012. “Is the Library Important? Multivariate Studies at the National and International Level.” Journal of Language and Literacy Education 8 no. 1: 26-36.

Why the UK test boycott

Sent to the Guardian May 1

Barbara Ellen assumes that parents who opt their children out of tests are opposed to all assessment ("Time children learned a life lesson at school," April 30). Not true. The opt-out parents in the UK (and in the USA) are not against all testing. They are opposed to excessive and unnecessary testing based on inappropriate standards.

Stephen Krashen

original article: http://www.theguardian.com/profile/barbaraellen

Donald Trump and the bogus shortage of STEM workers.

S. Krashen, May 1, 2016

"... the impending shortage of scientists and engineers is one of the longest running hoaxes in the country" (Gerald Bracey, 2009).

"Over the years, (Bill) Gates has been a leading advocate for increasing the H-1B visa and green cards in the belief that the U.S. isn't producing enough high-skilled workers."  http://www.computerworld.com/article/2490207/technology-law-regulation/u-s--senator-blasts-microsoft-s-h-1b-push-as-it-lays-off-18-000-workers.html

It is clear that despite the outcry from the business world, there is no shortage of STEM workers (eg Is the U.S. losing the tech race? By Michael S. Teitelbaum, April 20, 2014, Los Angeles Times op-ed.) and in particular no shortage of computer science trained workers (No shortage of computer science graduates. http://tinyurl.com/jdht2mn).

Many people have concluded that the reason companies say there is a shortage in these areas is so they can bring in STEM workers from other countries and pay them less.  Several candidates for president have made reasonable proposals about this situation. One of them is (gasp) Donald Trump, who comments on the H-1B visa, which allows foreign workers to be employed temporarily in the US in certain special areas.

"(Trump's) proposal has two basic components. First is to increase the H-1B "prevailing wage" so the programme can no longer be used for cheap labour. The prevailing wage is the minimum wage that an employer must pay an H-1B worker. Right now that wage is set far below the actual wages paid to American workers. As a result, employers have a profit motive to replace Americans with H-1Bs. The second component of the proposal is to require employers to actively recruit American workers before turning to the H-1B programme. Both of these proposals would fix the H-1B so that it works as it is intended: to fill skills gaps in the American labour market. These proposals are consistent with those introduced by policymakers that span the ideological spectrum, from liberal Democratic Senators Richard Durbin and Bernie Sanders to conservative Republican Senators Charles Grassley, Ted Cruz and Jeff Sessions. "

from:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/52057221.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Are there really 500,000 computer jobs open in the US?

No shortage of computer science graduates.
Stephen Krashen

There is now a petition to congress to provide more support for computer science in schools, because “There are currently over 500,000 open computing jobs, in every sector, from manufacturing to banking, from agriculture to healthcare, but only 50,000 computer science graduates a year.” (“Offer computer science in our public schools,”; change.org/computerscience#CSforALL)

The petition is signed by a number of “business leaders,” including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, state governors, and various heads of education organizations, including David Coleman of the College Board.

A footnote to the text of the petition notes that this data comes from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Not noted in the text is that the gap is a projection FOR THE NEXT TEN YEARS (from 2014 to 2024).  We will need 500,000 more computer science grads in 2024. NOT RIGHT NOW.

If we are producing about 50,000 computer graduates each year, this appears to be enough.

Additional note,
I discovered today (May 5) that the crucial footnote is no longer present in the petition. But the figure agrees with my own estimate, also based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Combining estimates for programmers, systems analysts, software developers, computer research scientists, web developers and database administrators, the total needed in 2024 is about 425,000.