Janet Steffenhagen
jsteffenhagen@pacpress.southam.ca

A back-to-basics reading program is being credited with drastically improving the reading skills of primary students in a small B.C. town. Four years ago, tests showed that almost one-third of students in Chase primary school were behind in reading. The numbers were even worse for aboriginal students, with as many as 60 per cent below standards in some years.

Last May, testing found 93 per cent of children in Grades 1 and 2 in the Kamloops-area school were meeting or exceeding expectations and First Nations students were on a par with their non-aboriginal peers. The difference was a back-to-basics reading program that has won accolades from the B.C. education ministry.

Called Open Court, it emphasizes skills instruction, an aspect of language-arts teaching that largely disappeared in the early 1980s when whole language came into vogue.

At the time it was felt that a large portion of students don't need that type of instruction, but now views are changing. John Zordell, who was principal at the Chase school when the new program was brought in, described it as highly structured with heavy use of student workbooks -- two features that were decried after whole-language instruction edged out phonics in North American schools.

"Workbooks have been out of favour . . . but kids love their workbooks," said Zordell, who now teaches in Kamloops.

While highly structured, the program also emphasizes good literature, which is part of the whole-language approach, Zordell said.

The program marked the first time Chase primary was able to close the learning gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students, he added. "It was quite dramatic. Actually, it was amazing."

That aspect of the program is of particular interest to B.C. educators, who have been concerned for several years about the performance of First Nations students.

According to provincewide tests, roughly 80 per cent of B.C. students are able to read at expected levels, but that figure drops to 56 per cent when results are assessed for aboriginal students.

A program that improves the skills of aboriginal students while lifting performance school-wide is something to celebrate, according to a ministry publication called Better Learning magazine.

The magazine, which is distributed to students throughout the province and is available on-line (www.bced.gov.bc.ca/betterlearning), noted that Zordell worked closely with the First Nations Education Council in implementing the program. About 33 per cent of the students are aboriginal "[The children] feel more confident. They want to go to school now," Donna Jules, education coordinator for the Adams Lake Band is quoted as saying.

"There's less misbehaving and school is seen as a positive experience." The school has made other efforts at the same time to help aboriginal children, but teachers who were surveyed as part of the assessment said the reading program was the top reason for the improved performance. They even noticed better behaviour on the playground.

In 1996-97, there were 239 referrals for misbehaviour. By 1998-99, that had dropped to 107.

Published in the U.S. by McGraw-Hill-Ryerson, Open Court is used in several hundred schools in Canada.

However, it has only recently made inroads in this province, with about a dozen schools using it in whole or in part, said Barbara Fowler, a company representative in B.C.

McGraw-Hill-Ryerson also produces another phonics-based program called Reading Mastery.

Fowler, a former teacher, says proponents of the philosophy inherent in Open Court believe all students benefit from skills instruction, and some children can't learn to read without it.

Recently, the programs have become of particular interest to educators working with aboriginal children, she added.

Fran Thompson of the International Dyslexia Association described the findings at Chase primary as "a huge thing with huge implications for the success of our children."

While insisting she isn't promoting one program over the other, Thompson said she is pleased the ministry is promoting a reading program that is based on research and has a proven track record.

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