A former student, Aleysha Ortiz, is suing the city of Hartford and the local board of education. Ortiz alleges she graduated without learning how to read or write. She claims it was due to negligence and lack of proper support for her developmental disabilities.
The lawsuit claims Ortiz was denied necessary testing for dyslexia. It also claims she was removed from special education curriculum and only tested for developmental disabilities on her last day of school, revealing significant unmet educational needs.
(without looking into it to verify) isn’t this likely because of “no child left behind”?
No, more complicated.
We stopped teaching phonics (which is something that we had already tried in the 70s, to similar disastrous results). The “whole language” approach just does not work for the vast majority of children.
Digital devices and the instant gratification machine/shot attention spans also make it so less children are reading for pleasure, so that way that some failed children would at least “make it” through interest and passion is less common too.
The NCLB/ESSA aspects are pulling time from social studies and science, which hamper the ability to think critically about what is read. The focus on state testing also means that literature instruction rarely involves reading entire books, but instead excerpts and passages in high school English classes, which more explicitly mirror what is assessed on the ACT, etc.