What Are the Main Obstacles That Children Encounter Today Concerning Reading Skills?
• No Accountability-The main obstacle is that there is no accountability in schools that ensures that every child learns to their potential. No one gets fired if one third of the kindergarten class does not know their sounds and letters. Nobody loses a promotion or a year of seniority or a salary increase if one-third of the first grade kids can’t read at the end of grade one. Teachers are only expected to operate on a “best efforts basis”. They do not have to get results. When they fail, the child or the parents or both get the blame. • Limited Information-A second obstacle that children face in learning to read is that their teachers and parents are not well informed about effective versus ineffective reading programs. The child gets placed in a reading program that has no consistent data for success. The child fails because the program failed. Teachers are rarely taught Direct Instruction approaches to reading when they are given teacher training. Most educational training institute
