So suggests Marshall Roberts, chair of national dyslexia advocacy group Code REaD, who warns the state’s own phonics screening data shows around one in three children still aren’t meeting essential reading benchmarks by the end of Year 1.
SA was the first Australian jurisdiction to mandate the Year 1 phonics screening check in 2018, a move that attracted the praise of literacy experts by highlighting problems with instruction across the system and paving the way for others to follow suit.
But reports from within the Code REaD network hint at a derailing of the Malinauskas Government’s improvement agenda with reading, Roberts tells EducationHQ.
“South Australia was … certainly a trailblazer. And since then, as I understand it, there has been a change of leadership within the department, (which) I think is part of the issue, and moving towards more constructivist approaches – not just in literacy, but numeracy as well.
“It’s kind of back to that ideological tussle, I think, on whether explicit instruction is the most effective way or whether it should be joined with other things or replaced with more [constructivist pedagogy] altogether.”
Ahead of the state election this Saturday, the Malinauskas Government has pledged to implement a second Year 2 Phonics Screening Check to follow the current Year 1 check in all public schools, with taxpayers naturally footing the bill.
This is a hugely misguided idea, Roberts says, and one that Code REaD are actively campaigning against.
“…this isn’t really the right way to go,” he argues.
“For students who failed the Year 1 phonics check, a second phonics check won’t tell teachers anything they don’t already know.”
“The Year 1 phonics check was the state’s smoke alarm…
“So why promise to install a second smoke detector, a year after the first alarm has gone off?”
Instead, Roberts and Code REaD say what schools really need is more detailed progress monitoring tools that kick in after Year 1.
Many schools have got on the front foot here and rolled out the full suite of Diagnostic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), Roberts notes.
You only need to look at high-performing schools in low socio-economic areas as evidence for more extensive progress monitoring.
“These schools are punching above their weight on NAPLAN – you’ll find lots of them are using these tools. That’s what South Australia should be doing as a matter of policy.”
Code REaD are calling on Malinauskas Government to rethink its election promise to implement a second Year 2 Phonics Screening Check, saying it does nothing to address the problems it identifies.
DIBELS is a curriculum-based measure that focusses on the key indicators of reading progress – not just oral fluency – three times a year. It should be mandated in all SA schools, literacy advocates say.
“It’s drilling down into different aspects of the literacy puzzle, really,” Roberts says.
“We’re only recommending it because it’s free and it’s well-established and there’s an evidence base behind it.”
The tool allows teachers to identify any specific weaknesses as students progress through school, he adds.
“Especially as the kids get older and are moving into Year 2 and 3, which is exactly where they’re looking at doing another phonics screening check, DIBELS starts to look at comprehension, for example.”
And while the department might argue that oral reading fluency is the only marker that needs to be screened, it’s “certainly not going to catch everyone”, Roberts warns.
“You might have cases of hyperlexia, for example, where kids can read quite fluently, but they haven’t got a clue what they’re reading in terms of comprehension.
“So that’s why a broader suite of tools is really vital.”
Prominent literacy expert Lyn Stone has got behind Code REaD’s campaign, along with educational consultant and tier 3 literacy specialist Bill Hansberry, speech pathologist Alison Clarke and former principal of Salisbury Primary School, Carol Scerri.
While he can’t speak definitively on the apparent shift in thinking underway within the Department, Roberts says he suspects there is a pushback against explicit instruction.
“There’s probably a pocket of teaching staff who feel the same way and might resent that, so it kind of gives room for that to grow again.
“In terms of what’s happening from the leadership … from what we’re hearing within the network, [there is a direction that’s moving away from the science of learning].”
Professor Martin Westwell was appointed Chief Executive of the Department for Education in April 2022, following four years as Chief Executive of the SACE Board.
Speaking on The Learning Future podcast with Louka Parry last year, Westwell reveals his take on explicit instruction, saying while it has got a critical place in the classroom, it’s not ‘the be all and end all’.
“At its worst, it’s kind of doing the past a bit better … it’s what we were doing in the past and it’s kind of incremental change. It’s faster horses.
“Whereas we’ve got change in the world … knowledge is still important, but it’s not got a premium that it used to have,” he says.
Hansberry says the department’s Year 2 phonics check plan amounted to poor policy and puts SA out of step with best practice.
“It’s now time for the Government to follow the lead of its highest-performing schools and roll out the full suite of DIBELS across all Government schools, and to collate this data centrally…” he urged.
“Let’s follow the science and do what is right for our children so all schools can get a clear and reliable picture of how our students are tracking.”
EducationHQ has contacted the SA Department for Education for comment.
