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Thank you for yet another valuable reminder of how the past is prologue, Tom.</div>
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Kind regards,</div>
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Donna </div>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Reading-hall-of-fame <reading-hall-of-fame-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk> on behalf of Thomas Sticht <tgsticht@gmail.com><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, February 1, 2024 11:40 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> reading hall of fame <Reading-hall-of-fame@lists.nottingham.ac.uk><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Reading-hall-of-fame] Black History Month</font>
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<div><font color="BA0C2F">[EXTERNAL SENDER - PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY]</font><br>
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<span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; color:rgb(50,58,69)">February 1, 2024</span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; color:rgb(50,58,69)">February is National Black History Month</span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""></span></b></p>
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<span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; color:rgb(50,58,69)">The Past is Prologue Part 1: Getting the Right to Read and College Without the SAT<br>
</span><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; color:rgb(50,58,69)">Tom
Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)</span><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; color:rgb(50,58,69)"> Over the years I have had the opportunity to work with many African American educators to improve educational and employment opportunities for adults. Two African
American colleagues with whom I have worked stand out for their work on projects to elevate the lives of American citizens through education. I choose these two colleagues to recognize because, as indicated below, their work has influenced United States governmental
policies for providing educational opportunities for hundreds of thousands of adults.</span><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; color:rgb(50,58,69)">Dr. Shirley Jackson and the Right to Read (R2R) Program</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; color:rgb(50,58,69)"><br>
I worked with Dr. Shirley Jackson when she was directing the U.S. government’s R2R program within the Office of Education in the U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). One activity of the R2R was the identification of reading education
programs demonstrated to be particularly effective. I had directed one of only two programs focused on adult literacy education to be considered as “exemplary” by the R2R. </span><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; color:rgb(50,58,69)">Writing in 1980, Jackson stated: “This is a report on the fifth year of the National Right to Read Program. … Thousands of people have been helped by this program, but
in addition, the Right to Read program has been able not only to focus national attention on the reading problems of our young people and on illiteracy, but also to identify resources throughout the country which can be made available to bring about needed
reforms.”<br>
</span><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; color:rgb(50,58,69)">Following
her work on the R2R Jackson went on to direct the National Basic Skills Improvement Program and she served in various leadership positions within the Department of Education, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education. Outside of the federal government
she served as a member of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and contributed to the NCNW mission: “…to lead, develop, and advocate for women of African descent as they support their families and communities.”</span><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; color:rgb(50,58,69)"> Dr. Bernard Gifford and the National Commission on Testing and Public Policy (NCTPP)
</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The December 1969 edition of Ebony magazine ran an article entitled “Scientist With a Cause.” It tells the story of Bernard Gifford,
a 26 year old African-American man with a master’s degree in biophysics working on his Ph.D. in that field. At the time of the article Gifford was heading an organization called FIGHT (Freedom, Independence, God, Honor, Today) which worked to gain more and
better educational and occupational opportunities for black people.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Some two decades later I worked with Dr. Bernard Gifford, at the time a professor at the University of California’s Berkeley campus, when I served as a member of the National Commission on
Testing and Public Policy (NCTPP), a Ford Foundation funded activity which he chaired from 1987 to 1990. We shared an interest in how to gain more and better educational and occupational opportunities for people by avoiding misuses of standardized tests as
gatekeepers to opportunities.
</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; font-size:12pt">In an Education Week article about the work of the Commission on Testing and Public Policy, Rothman (1990) quoted Gifford as saying, “Under no circumstances,
should individuals be denied an opportunity for educati on, training, or employment exclusively on the basis of a test score. The human animal is far more complex and far more rich than can be measured by a single test.”</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; font-size:12pt">
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<b><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">And the Past is Prologue</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">
Reminiscent of the work of Shirley Jackson and others in the Right to Read program of the 1970s, in April of 2023 members of the 118<sup>th</sup> Congress of the United States introduced a new education bill called H.R.2889 – Right to Read Act of
2023. Among other things, the bill states: the term ‘right to read’ means all students have access to linguistically and developmentally appropriate, evidence-based reading instruction and family literacy support with reading materials in the home.
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<span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Regarding testing, in 2001 Dr. Richard C. Atkinson, President of the University of California system, including Gifford’s Berkeley University, moved in the direction recommended by Gifford
and the NCTPP and asked the Academic Senate to stop the use of the standardized Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or American College Testing (ACT) tests as entrance requirements for the University of California system. Today, neither the SAT or ACT tests are
required for entry into the University of California system.
References </span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Jackson, S. (1980). Foreword: In: Elbers, G., Annual Report The Right to Read, Fiscal Year 1979, (p. 3). Online at: <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED191005.pdf" target="_blank">https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED191005.pdf</a></span></p>
<span style="font-size:12pt; line-height:18.4px; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> Rothman, R. (1990,May). Ford Study Urges New Test System To ‘Open the Gates of Opportunity. Online at: <a href="https://www.edweek.org/education/ford-study-urges-new-test-system-to-open-the-gates-of-opportunity/1990/05" target="_blank">https://www.edweek.org/education/ford-study-urges-new-test-system-to-open-the-gates-of-opportunity/1990/05</a></span><br>
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