The spells of reform that have characterized the field of reading over the past several decades have often showered favor on their respective heroes and shunned others with rival views.
鈥淚t鈥檚 politics. There are 鈥榠nnies鈥� and 鈥榦uties,鈥� 鈥� as one former federal education official puts it.
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In the current drive for 鈥渞esearch based鈥� reading instruction, there can be no doubt that Ed Kam茅enui is an 鈥渋nnie.鈥�
As one in a seemingly exclusive group of researchers whose work corresponds closely with federal officials鈥� vision for applying scientific principles to the teaching of reading, he has been the target of both praise and criticism from the field. Though the tools he鈥檚 designed for teachers are now widely used, some in the field wonder if it鈥檚 his professional alliances more than the value of his programs that account for their increased demand.
Mr. Kam茅enui and a small cadre of other researchers have landed millions of dollars worth of grants and contracts to help states and districts implement the strict mandates of the federal Reading First initiative.
鈥淭here is a feeling among many folks that there is a club of folks whose work is being privileged right now,鈥� said P. David Pearson, a reading researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.
A professor of education at the University of Oregon, Mr. Kam茅enui has become one of the most sought-after consultants and conference presenters in the country. His expertise in training teachers to craft skills-based instructional programs has taken him throughout the Pacific Northwest to consulting gigs in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington state, and Wisconsin.
Mr. Kam茅enui, 56, is a favored son across the country in the other Washington as well, where federal officials have all but deputized him in their endeavor to standardize the teaching of reading.
He helped coordinate and deliver workshops and academies sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education in the rollout of President Bush鈥檚 reading legislation. He has become a regular recipient of federal grants for Reading First and for special education projects, bringing in more than $2 million in 2003 and 2004 alone, according to university financial reports. And he is the director of the Western Regional Technical Assistance Center for Reading First, which will share a $36 million federal grant to help implement the program in 22 states.
The Hawaii native鈥檚 work has been influential in less direct ways as well. While he may not be a household name, teachers and administrators throughout the country are likely familiar with his work.
鈥淭he Consumers Guide to Evaluating Core Reading Programs,鈥� which he wrote with his University of Oregon colleague Deborah C. Simmons, is now a required resource for Reading First grantees. Only a handful of commercial reading programs seem to meet the criteria outlined in the guide.
Nonsense Words
The success has also touched his University of Oregon colleagues Roland H. Good III and Ruth Kaminski. They鈥檝e landed important consulting work with the Education Department as well.
The practical assessment tools that the two have developed for teachers have also gained national recognition and regular classroom use. The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Reading Skills, or dibels, is a set of quick, skill-specific assessments to gauge students鈥� phonemic awareness, word recognition, and reading fluency. The pair recently added dibels (pronounced 鈥渄ibbles鈥�) assessments for reading-comprehension measures.
As a required tool under most states鈥� plans for the $6 billion, 6-year Reading First program, dibels has become the most widely used ongoing assessment among grantees nationwide. Although the basic assessments are free when downloaded from the Internet, school administrators can opt for participation in a sophisticated data-management system, which Mr. Kam茅enui was instrumental in creating, that tracks student progress on the tests at a cost of $1 per student per year. So far, more than a million students are tracked through that system.
Despite its widespread use, critics question whether dibels makes good sense, primarily because its main measurement is a test of nonsense words. A main part of the test features words made up of random vowels and consonants, such as 鈥渟ig,鈥� 鈥渞av,鈥� and 鈥渙v.鈥� Pupils are asked to say the individual sounds for each letter or to read the whole word phonetically, even though the words have no meaning.
The children are scored on the basis of how many words they can correctly read in a minute. The test is given twice in kindergarten and three times in 1st grade.
鈥淵ou use [a test of] nonsense words if you want to know how far kids鈥� phonics skills extend. It鈥檚 pure and simple decoding,鈥� said Mr. Pearson, the dean of the college of education at Berkeley. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not an assessment of everyday reading. So what does it mean to say one kid could name letters [and letter sounds] twice as fast as other kids?鈥� Still, the dibels brochures claim that results on the test are good indicators of how well children鈥檚 reading skills will progress.
鈥淒ibels is a way of sampling behavior as quickly as possible,鈥� Mr. Kam茅enui said. 鈥淒oes it tell us everything about reading? Absolutely not. But it鈥檚 a good index to a potential reading problem.鈥�
鈥楾echnical Expertise鈥�
Mr. Kam茅enui has also consulted with publishers seeking to align their products with the much-touted research base. He and Ms. Simmons write for Scott Foresman, a commercial publisher based in Glenview, Ill. whose main reading series has been widely approved for use in Reading First schools.
Those connections have led some experts to ask whether he and others now in favor among policymakers are leveraging their advisory positions to promote their own products and services.
Those few researchers have landed much of the professional-development and consulting work around the country鈥攚ork that often leads to greater use of their programs and assessments.
Mr. Kam茅enui is surprised by those suggestions. He says his success is on the back of his highly specialized experience, as well as 20 years of results working in the field.
The former reading professor at the University of Montana and Purdue University in Indiana served on the National Research Council鈥檚 committee on preventing reading difficulties.
鈥淭his requires a lot of technical expertise . and the credibility to go into schools, work with principals, and show how you can correct the problem,鈥� Mr. Kam茅enui said. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 fake your way on this.鈥�
Edward J. Kam茅enui has been a professor of education at Oregon since 1988. Subsequently, he became the director of the university鈥檚 Institute for the Development of Educational Achievement, which has brought in some $50 million in grants and contracts since his arrival. He has also written dozens of journal articles and published dozens of books and textbooks on reading.
A number of state coordinators for Reading First grants have praised Mr. Kam茅enui鈥檚 work as a consultant to their programs. He inspires teachers while informing them, according to Debbie Hunsacker, who oversees the federal grant program in Montana.
G. Reid Lyon, the director of the branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development that underwrites reading research, is unapologetic that some researchers have not found a niche in the current policy environment.
If there is an 鈥渋n鈥� crowd, Mr. Lyon said, it is made up of researchers who are committed to the tenets of the federal legislation and have been effective in helping teachers and administrators translate those policies into practice.
鈥淲hat I do know is that Ed Kam茅enui [and others] are very talented researchers, and they have a common history and track record of ... asking questions and applying the right methods to those questions.鈥�
Ed Kam茅enui is among those who have benefited from 鈥渞esearch based鈥� strategies.
