As a 20-year reading intervention teacher in the Oxnard School District, I have noticed a steady decline in the number of students who need remedial reading instruction. This, I believe, is the result of the focused efforts of the dedicated teachers of the Oxnard elementary School District.
An important program -- the split reading option -- is being threatened by the Oxnard School District's efforts to take away teachers' right to determine the best teaching strategy for the students in their classrooms.
Teachers who choose the split reading program option divide their students into smaller groups, then design and implement lessons geared specifically toward the instructional needs of students in those smaller groups.
The Oxnard School District says that smaller class size does not improve test scores. Most parents, teachers and concerned citizens would refute that position on the basis of common sense. More important, however, is the question that such a stance raises: Have test scores really become more important than the children we teach?
Each student who enters our classrooms is a unique individual with unique instructional needs and a unique learning style. The split reading option allows elementary school teachers the opportunity to more effectively address each student's learning needs. The choice to divide classes into smaller groups via the split reading option is an especially important tool for teachers of diverse student populations.
The opportunity to receive focused, small group instruction is best for our students. Those of us in the classroom know it. Parents know it.
We are asking our board of trustees to think back to when their children were in elementary school. What was best for them? That is what we want for all of our children in the Oxnard School District.
-- Dori Maria Jones, Ed.D., Oxnard