Reading- its something you do on a daily basis. Youre doing it right now, but reading can be hard. According to Rebecca Silverman, an associate professor of education at Stanford Graduate School of Education, [reading] is not a natural phenomenon. Theres no specific region of the brain for reading or writing. Through evolution, humans have hijacked other parts of the brain auditory, visual and combined them into a network of channels to develop the ability to read and write (Spector). Because we are all different and the network has developed differently for each of us, literacy levels develop differently for everyone. Because of varying literacy levels, many school-age students suffer from low literacy issues. This issue often affects an individual throughout the entire duration of their lifetime. According to Kristen Brown, a Washington County School District Curriculum Coordinator, literacy scores have been stagnant in Washington County School District for years and years despite varied curricula, added interventions, and retrained teachers (Brown). In an effort to raise literacy
scores, specifically low literacy scores, the school district is seeking a solution for this long-suffering problem. According to Brown, two possible strategies that have previously been underused are under consideration to increase these reading scores: increasing parental involvement and engagement through the use of literacy education and parent access to interventions or using phonics as the center for teaching reading in the classroom by retraining and educating teachers and providing support to implement this new focus. While both of these are viable solutions, if the Washington County School District (WCSD) wants to raise its low literacy scores, we must remember the old adage that you can lead a horse to water, but you cant make him drink. In other words, having Washington County School District rely on parents freewill to increase low literacy scores is something the district can encourage, but not control; phonics will provide the better solution for increasing low reading scores as the district has jurisdiction for implementation of schoolwide phonics curriculum and training.