[Reading-hall-of-fame] Black History Month

[Thomas Sticht]

February 1, 2024

*February is National Black History Month*

The Past is Prologue Part 1: Getting the Right to Read and College Without
the SAT

                        Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult
Education (Ret.)

       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.

*Dr. Shirley Jackson and the Right to Read (R2R) Program*
       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.

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.”

                                                               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.”

* Dr. Bernard Gifford and the National Commission on Testing and Public
Policy (NCTPP)
                                                                     *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.

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.


                                                                    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.”



*And the Past is  Prologue*
         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 118th 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.


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

Jackson, S. (1980). Foreword: In: Elbers, G., Annual Report The Right to
Read, Fiscal Year 1979, (p. 3). Online at:
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED191005.pdf
 Rothman, R. (1990,May). Ford Study Urges New Test System To ‘Open the
Gates of Opportunity. Online at:
https://www.edweek.org/education/ford-study-urges-new-test-system-to-open-the-gates-of-opportunity/1990/05
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