Blog Posts

Welcome to the Winter 2020 edition of the CORE Academic Quarterly newsletter! In this edition of the Academic Quarterly, the Reading Expert discusses how to close gaps for older, struggling readers through diagnostic assessment and specific intervention strategies. The Marvelous Mathematician shares why vocabulary in math is so important and the challenges students face when […]

New analysis from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), a nonpartisan research and policy organization, shows significant progress among the nation’s teacher prep programs in their adherence to the methods of reading instruction that are most likely to result in the highest number of successful readers. The NCTQ 2020 Teacher Prep Review shows that […]

Published by National Association of School Superintendents Monica Ng, Pivot Learning’s* Director, Education Programs, recently shared details of Pivot Learning’s collaboration with Monterey Peninsula Unified School District (Monterey, CA),  Lancaster School District (Lancaster, CA) to pilot an innovative peer-to-peer learning model. Leadership teams from these two districts were provided the opportunity to learn strategies for […]

Student Achievement Partners has released a report that offers a deep dive into Teachers College Reading & Writing Project’s Units of Study English language arts instructional program. Seven literacy experts evaluated the program to determine its adherence to research-based practices that should be evident in literacy programs and in use in classrooms, particularly to accelerate […]

Recently, there have been many responses to Lucy Calkins’ essay ”No One Gets to Own the Term, Science of Reading.” Many have responded with strong disagreement to her point of view. Two of the responses are very informative and can be found here and here. More disputes to her essay can be found here. Interestingly, […]

Implementing a new curriculum is a daunting task. Often the organization, layout, and even the instructional approach can be drastically different than the previously used curriculum. Change takes time, especially if that change includes learning new instructional approaches. Therefore, the first year or two of implementing a new curriculum may be focused on changing instructional […]

The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) recently named CORE, Inc. as one of the approved providers for research-based effective literacy instructional professional learning. CORE will partner with Michigan educators to facilitate significant improvement in educator effectiveness through job-embedded professional learning based on the science of reading. CORE’s Elementary Reading Academy, based on the nationally recognized Teaching […]

Last month, EdReports.org released reviews of five ELA Foundational Skills programs, evaluating them each based on the reading foundational skills called for, including whether or not the skills apply research-based practices and are presented systematically with explicit instruction. Linda Diamond, president of CORE, was a reviewer and provided feedback on the development of the rubrics […]

I left graduate school fully convinced that this was axiomatic: The road to reading is paved on a foundation of meaning. Fortunately, I spent the first years after my degree as a first grade teacher in a bilingual school, teaching, or at least trying to teach, reading in English and in Spanish. I learned from […]

In 1976, when news Anchor Howard Beale in the film Network yelled this famous line on air and urged everyone to open their windows and yell too, it resonated with me. It resonates even more now as once again the reading science deniers disparage those of us in the reading research community who accept the […]

by Susan Van Zant and Nancy Volpe, Educational Services Specialists, CORE Nowadays the ability to answer text-dependent questions is essential to do well on standardized tests of all types.  Students often have a difficult time using information from the text to answer comprehension questions, particularly inferential questions which require them to cross reference text and […]

Welcome to the Fall 2019 edition of the CORE Academic Quarterly newsletter! In this edition of the Academic Quarterly, the Reading Expert discusses a few ways that educators can distinguish between a true reading disability and English language development challenges in English learners. The Marvelous Mathematician shares the important role note taking plays in helping […]

“Larry P'”, the pseudonym given to the Mr. Darryl Lester, the main plaintiff in the landmark 1970’s case which was filed against the state of California on behalf of African American students, is just one of many people who suffered great injustice in our California public school system. Wrongly labeled “Educable Mentally Retarded” at the […]

It is almost Trick or Treat time, and I am reminded of my classroom days working with struggling Algebra 1 students. Fractions issues were the usual suspect! I used to tell my students that I was going to dress up as a fraction on Halloween and scare them all. Their choral response was usually something […]

Unlike learning to speak, reading is not a natural process. Reading has to be taught. For many, learning to read is one of the most difficult cognitive tasks they will ever encounter, especially for those with dyslexia. According to the International Dyslexia Association (IDA), dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. […]