[Reading-hall-of-fame] Black History Month
P David Pearson
ppearson at berkeley.edu
Thu Feb 1 21:05:13 GMT 2024
Those volumes on assessment that Bernie put together in the 1980s conveyed
a powerful and positive view of assessment. I found it very motivating for
the work I tried to do on assessment in the late 80s and early 90s.
David
On Thu, Feb 1, 2024 at 12:43 PM Donna E Alvermann <dalverma at uga.edu> wrote:
> Thank you for yet another valuable reminder of how the past is prologue,
> Tom.
> Kind regards,
> Donna
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Reading-hall-of-fame <
> reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> on behalf of Thomas
> Sticht <tgsticht at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Thursday, February 1, 2024 11:40 AM
> *To:* reading hall of fame <Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
> *Subject:* [Reading-hall-of-fame] Black History Month
>
> [EXTERNAL SENDER - PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY]
>
> 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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--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
*"I have my faults, but living in the past is not one of them: There is no
future in it!" *Sparky Anderson, Manager, Cincinnati Reds & Detroit Tigers
*"*The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from
you." - B.B. King, Blues Guitarist Extraordinaire
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
P. David Pearson
Evelyn Lois Corey *Emeritus* Professor of Instructional Science
Graduate School of Education
University of California, Berkeley
email: ppearson at berkeley.edu
other e-mail: pdavidpearsondean at gmail.com
website for publications: www.pdavidpearson.org
PDP's YouTube Channel
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