Why is it so hard to raise school retention rates and outcomes?
In Tasmania, so much attention and money continues to be put into trying to improve the education outcomes for years 11 and 12, increasing the leaving age, extending all schools to year 11 and 12, etc. The key is seen to be increasing school retention rates, but is this so? Why do the problems persist? How can many students leave after 10 years of education barely able to read?
If we don’t get things right in the first 3 or 4 years of schooling, children will struggle all the way through. If you can’t read the textbooks, how can you participate, let alone succeed? Good initial reading instruction is the key to improving school retention rates.
A letter to the editor last Saturday (The Mercury, 16/4/16) “School problems stem from the root” by Jean Harrison, arguably Tasmania’s best tutor of remedial reading, makes challenging reading. https://vasblog.com/2016/04/18/letter-to-the-media-on-retention-rates-this-is-for-you-jeanne/
Coming soon – How the brain learns to read.
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