Reading Taught the Scripted Way

Seeking to raise chronically low test scores, most of Los Angeles’ elementary schools are switching to a single reading program that prescribes step-by-step phonics lessons and strictly governs how teachers do their jobs.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is following the lead of other major school systems in California by embracing Open Court, a heavily scripted program that dictates many details of daily instruction.

The program is being phased into kindergarten and first and second grades during the summer and fall. In all, 360 Los Angeles schools will use Open Court this school year--80% of the campuses that serve primary-grade students. Plans call for expanding to grades three to five next year.

“It’s a good program,” said new Los Angeles Supt. Roy Romer. “It’s here to stay so long as it is the best we’ve got to work with.”

L.A. Unified joins a growing list of school systems around the state that are turning to Open Court. Among the converts are Inglewood, Sacramento and 26 other districts using literacy coaches to reinforce the new methods.

The schools are part of a $45-million reform initiative funded by the private Packard Humanities Institute, a private foundation in Northern Californ.

The Inglewood and Sacramento schools have seen test scores rise for primary-grade students who use Open Court. But it remains to be seen whether those gains will be sustained over time.

“Open Court is a solid program, [but] achievement test scores become almost stubborn as you go up the grades,” said Claude Goldenberg, associate dean of the College of Education at Cal State Long Beach and an authority on reading instruction.

“The reading agenda in the early grades is much more weighted toward letters and sounds,” Goldenberg added. “It’s more difficult to sustain the gains as kids go up the grades because reading is more cognitively challenging and requires the reader to bring more background knowledge to the task.”

Open Court stresses daily practice in combining letters and sounds, along with regular writing exercises and readings from children’s literature. The teacher’s guide gives explicit instructions on how to teach every lesson.

Along with the new program, teachers are expected to administer diagnostic tests every six to eight weeks in spelling, vocabulary and other basic skills. Campuses then chart student progress and intervene with those who are failing.

Romer and other L.A. Unified officials believe that a single reading program will lend consistency across a district in which thousands of students move from school to school during the year.

Proponents also see the curriculum as a valuable guide for teachers, especially those with little experience.

“As a first-year teacher, it’s very practical to have a program where everything is laid out for you,” said Erika Cornejo, who teaches first grade at Parthenia Street Elementary in North Hills. “It’s very welcomed in my classroom.”

Outcry From Some Teachers

But Open Court is generating an outcry from other teachers who struggle to adapt to the system in their classrooms.

Some complain that Open Court robs them of creativity, while others question whether a single approach can meet the needs of all children--especially those with limited command of English.

Teachers at several schools said they are having trouble keeping up with the curriculum’s swift pace. In one typical complaint, a teacher in Echo Park said she is spending three to four hours each day getting through the lessons, forcing her to slash time for math, science, social studies, music and physical education.

“Everything is suffering because of it,” said the teacher at Logan Street Elementary, who asked that her name not be used. “I watch my students wilting on me. They are burned out. There is so much crammed into each day that it’s exhausting and sometimes confusing for the students. I would never want to do this again.”

The arrival of literacy coaches also is producing anxiety on campuses. The coaches are supposed to assist teachers with the Open Court program, but some instructors wonder if the newcomers are going to keep a close eye on classroom practices. Some teachers refer to the coaches as the “Open Court police.”

“The system is very totalitarian in how it’s handling Open Court,” said a second-grade teacher in the San Fernando Valley with more than 20 years of experience. “Children in Russia learned to read, but at the expense of creativity, at the expense of questioning. I think there’s a lack of trust in teachers and their judgment.”

Romer insisted that teachers’ hands will not be tied and that instructors can supplement Open Court to meet the needs of individual students. Romer’s incoming deputy in charge of instruction, Maria Gutierrez Ott, echoed those comments.

The superintendent also said the new “coaches” are meant to assist teachers, not to report on them. “I’m not into Open Court police,” Romer said.

Still, Romer offered a blunt warning for teachers who refuse to get on board.

“If I were the principal and I had . . . two teachers say they’re just not going to do it, I’d say, ‘Fine, you need to move out of this school. We’ll find you another place, post haste.’ ”

The move to Open Court is part of a broad effort by the district to address woefully low standardized test scores. The average L.A. Unified student landed in the 29th percentile in reading this year--placing in the bottom third of students nationally on the Stanford 9 exam.

Romer’s predecessors made reading instruction a top priority by requiring teachers to devote at least two hours a day to the subject and by reducing the number of reading programs from more than a dozen to three.

Low-performing schools were told to choose among Open Court and two similar programs, Success for All and Reading Mastery.

In the end, 311 schools chose Open Court, saying Success for All was too expensive and Reading Mastery was little known. An additional 49 schools already were using Open Court on their own.

The change in L.A. Unified is monumental, requiring the retraining of 8,000 teachers this summer.

Some who have entered the training as skeptics say they have changed their minds after sitting through the five-day sessions.

“Initially we all come in with reservations. No one likes change,” said Jeff Moore, a kindergarten teacher at Cahuenga Elementary in Hollywood. It’s very scripted, very structured. You have to follow it all the way through. But I really like it. I’m very jazzed by it.”