For Jessica Reid Sliwerski, a former teacher who founded an online reading tutorial company, consistently lower test scores are a warning that the system needs an overhaul.
“Crummy scores pre-pandemic are indicative of a system that simply does not teach kids to read — a problem that persisted throughout the pandemic and still persists today,” said Sliwerski, a former teacher and CEO of Ignite Reading, a Zoom-based reading tutorial. “It is literally as simple as that. We do not as a nation hold our school systems accountable to ensuring that every single child is given equitable access to evidence-based instruction by a teacher who is highly trained and supported.”
From “How badly did the pandemic deepen California’s early reading crisis?” EdSource (November 2022)