"A Guide for Parents: How Do I Know a Good Early Reading Program When I See One?" is remarkable for its detailed direction.
Granted, some of the guidance is generalization: "Every teacher is excited about reading and promotes the value and fun of reading to students."
But beyond a few such statements, Bush's 10 tips specify how much time children should spend in reading instruction, how many times a week they should be tested, and how many times they should practice spelling. Examples:
And just as her husband advocates vouchers without using the loaded word, Laura Bush avoids the sensitive word "phonics" when urging parents to look for phonics in their neighborhood schools: "Reading instruction and practice includes work on letters, sounds and blending sounds. Students learn to blend letters and sounds to form new words."
The guide was posted on the U.S. Education Department's Web site (www.ed.gov) last week on the day the first lady, a former librarian, launched her "Ready to Read, Ready to Learn" campaign at a public school in Hyattsville. There's more on the Web site, including the Bushes' rationale for literacy activities among the youngest children. As governor of Texas, George W. Bush paid to train 17,000 kindergarten teachers to evaluate all children "to see what they know and what they need to become good readers."
The first lady says that's what parents should be looking for in their kids' kindergartens.
It will be fascinating to see whether Laura Bush will act as a public relations agent for her husband's education initiatives, or whether she will wade in and confront some of the issues head-on. The guide for parents is a promising start.
Wait a minute. Don't we have this wrong? Shouldn't we be saying that the kindergartens of Maryland are fully prepared to educate only two out of five children? Who's at fault here, parents, day care centers and Head Start, or public schools that haven't gone out to meet the 60 percent of 5-year-olds who aren't ready?
"I can see making a statement like that about eighth-graders not being ready for high school," said one observer, "but this is the beginning of formal schooling. It's kindergarten, for heaven's sake!"
Whether you agree with that criticism, ever-earlier formal education is here to stay. The kindergarten readiness report was issued in Annapolis at a first-ever legislative budget hearing on the subject of readiness.
In the spirit of those who insist that the new millennium began this year, maybe we should retire that lovely German word "kindergarten" and replace it with "grade 0."
Here's what the two said about MSPAP and reading: "MSPAP is not adequately measuring if children can read. Students are not tested on foundational reading skills until third grade, even though reading failure begins in first grade. ... What is more, many of the test items that allegedly measure reading skills call for written answers, thus measuring writing rather than reading ability."
Baltimoresun.com's 
