Jim Cummins, Kristin Brown, and Dennis Sayers, Literacy, technology, and diversity: teaching success in changing times

Abstract

Cummins, Brown, and Sayers (2006), the authors of Literacy, Technology, and Diversity: Teaching for Success in Changing Times, have written an excellent critique of the research conducted by the National Reading Panel (NRP) that forms the foundation for the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in terms of literacy development. The authors contrast the findings of the NRP study with a comprehensive literature review of longitudinal research data from both domestic and international reading studies. Using the findings from this comprehensive literature review related to reading development, the authors illustrate issues resulting from the implementation of the NCLB, especially in terms of schools serving low income and minority students. Cummins, Brown, and Sayers conclude the book with recommendations for pedagogical approaches, assessment techniques, and technology-supported instructional strategies that better align with current theory related to how people learn and that support the needs of the diverse student populations teachers are now engaged with in the U.S. The comprehensive, longitudinal research data summarized by the authors demonstrates that U.S. students perform well in early elementary grades in terms of conversational fluency and decoding skills, but their performance drops off in higher grades where stronger reading comprehension skills of academic, complex prose is needed (p. 13, 52). Yet, the NCLB is focused ‘‘on implementing ‘scientifically proven’ approaches to initial reading instruction (thereby providing a solution to a nonexistent problem), while largely ignoring the real problems that many adolescents face in more advanced forms of reading comprehension’’ (p. 13). The authors also argue that