A response to Steubing et al., "Effects of systematic phonics instruction are practically significant": The origins of the National Reading Panel.

Authors

  • Gregory Camilli Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
  • Sun Hee Kim Teachers College, Columbia University
  • Sadako Vargas Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v16n16.2008

Keywords:

early reading, phonics instruction, literacy instruction, reading difficulties, National Reading Panel, meta-analysis

Abstract

A recent article by Stuebing, Barth, Cirino, Francis and Fletcher critiqued the findings of Camilli, Vargas, and Yurecko (2003) and Camilli, Wolfe, and Smith (2006). With a methodological argument, they attempted to resolve the conflict between these studies and the original report Teaching Children to Read (National Reading Panel, 2000). In response, it is argued that three issues must be considered in a fair assessment of the NRP report—program labels or bins, alternative bins, and the role of literacy activities in reading instruction. In this light, three hypotheses ventured by Stuebing et al. are analyzed. It is concluded that the argument by Stuebing et al. does not reveal flaws in the original NRP report by Camilli et al. (2003), though some points of agreement are acknowledged.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Gregory Camilli, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

Gregory Camilli is Professor of Educational Statistics and Measurement in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. His current research interests include meta-analysis, educational effectiveness, differential item functioning, and affirmative action in law school admission. His publications include Summarizing Item Difficulty Variation with Parcel Scores (Camilli, G., Prowker, A.N., Dossey, J., Lindquist, M., Chiu, T.W., Vargas, S. & de la Torre, forthcoming); Illustration of a multilevel model for meta- analysis (de la Torre, J., Camilli, G., Vargas, S., & Vernon, R. F., 2007)); and Handbook of Complementary Methods in Education Research (Green, J. L., Camilli, G., & Elmore, P.B., 2006).

Sun Hee Kim, Teachers College, Columbia University

Sun Hee Kim is a doctorate student in Measurement and Evaluation in the Department of Human Development, Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research focuses on measurement and statistical analysis in psychology, education, and policy. Her publications include examining individual change over time in an alternative assessment, and relationships between literacy and language ability of young children.

Sadako Vargas, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

Sadako Vargas is Research Associate in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Her research interests meta-analysis and the effectiveness of occupational therapy. Her publications include A meta-analysis of research on sensory integration therapy (Vargas, S. & Camilli, 1999); The origin of the National Reading Panel: A response to “Effects of systematic phonics instruction are practically significant (Camilli, G., Kim S.H. & Vargas, S., forthcoming); and Teaching Children to Read: The fragile link between science and federal education policy (Camilli, G., Vargas, S., and Yurecko, M., 2003).

Downloads

Published

2008-08-30

How to Cite

Camilli, G., Kim, S. H. ., & Vargas, S. (2008). A response to Steubing et al., "Effects of systematic phonics instruction are practically significant": The origins of the National Reading Panel. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 16, 16. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v16n16.2008

Issue

Vol. 16 (2008)

Section

Articles