For the past few days, I’ve been reading Readicide, How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It, by Kelly Gallagher.

The book hasn’t been released yet, so if you’re looking to purchase a copy you can pre-order it through Amazon. However, the publisher has made the book freely available for preview so that it can be discussed at a handful of ed blogs (thanks to Bill at The Tempered Radical for that bit of info). Check out the publisher’s site for other blogs on the tour, or go directly to the book (the pdf file is hosted on Stenhouse’s servers).

I’ve read the first couple chapters, and so far I’m pretty interested and excited. Gallagher’s diagnosis of the problems in our schools (especially in my context of urban schooling) is spot on. The focus on high stakes tests is killing student curiosity.

Gallagher focuses specifically on reading and English instruction, but I think the argument could be extrapolated to all of the core subject areas – if for no other reason than a student’s lack of interest in reading is a severe handicap for any meaningful instruction in Social Studies. I can teach kids basic information through videos, songs, and interactive activities, but if they’re going to move beyond simple comprehension to any type of analysis or evaluation they need to read. There’s simply no way around it.

I haven’t been as impressed yet with the suggestions for action. I haven’t finished the entire book yet, so I’m not ready to pass judgement, but none of what I’ve read so far as struck me as “the right one.”

One reason being that I fear my administration is so short-sighted and fixed on HSPA scores that they’d be unwilling to experiment with more productive ideas. Even if the suggestions yielded better readers and more knowledge-able students down the road, if they don’t immediately raise HSPA scores they’ll be thrown out the window.

That, of course, gets back to the main idea of the book. Hmm…

Anyhow, I’d highly suggest you read through the book. There are some highly quote-able portions, and if nothing else it’s a soothing reminder that other people are going through the same problems.

Afterwards, you can partake in the discussion of Readicide at one of the blogs listed on Steinhouse’s site. For the next few days, the Tempered Radical is hosting a conversation about the book, and I plan on heading over there to check it out. You should too.