Dr. Karen McCarthy School Superintendent P.O. Box 387 Katonah, NY 10536

Katonah-Lewisboro School District

Dear Dr. McCarthy,

June 13, 1996

Enclosed is a copy of an article recently written for the New York Times, and another copied from the Los Angeles Times. Both are interesting and worth your consideration.

We strongly believe that everyone can learn to read more successfully and easily with Systematic Phonics than with Whole Language. We have introduced our son, Dylan, to Phonics at home. He is a Kindergartner at Increase Miller Elementary. We teach him from copied pages from a wonderful book called Readinq .With Phonics, by Julie Hay and Charles E. Wingo, Published by J.B. Lippincott Co., in 1960. We're using the Teacher's Edition. Unfortunately, this valuable book is no longer in print. It truly makes reading easy, fun to learn, and rewarding. Another enlightening and helpful book is Why Johnny Can't Read, written by Rudolf Flesch in 1955, and published by Perennial Library, Harper & Row, Publishers.

We have become aware of some interesting statistics we'd like to share with you in case you are not already familiar with them.

The entire state of California, which was the first state to implement Whole Language, now says research shows this method has failed. Phonics is being revived throughout California.

We are Concerned and hope this is presently an issue under consideration at the Katonah Lewisboro School District.

The Katonah Lewisboro Kaleidoscope District Newsletter, written by the Board of Education, on June 10 1996, announced they "...voted to endorse an austerity budget." for 1996-97. One of the programs listed as paid for by this budget and the taxpayers is "remedial reading". With the high percentage of students who need remedial reading, this is a great expense to us all. We need to look at the research available and at our own schools and students to learn what is wrong and how we can change. Has the percentage of students who receive remedial reading increased dramatically since Whole Language has replaced Systematic Phonics? Past and recent research has proven many students cannot learn to read with Whole Language, and yet all can learn to read with Phonics. As in our own schools, when Whole Language fails to teach so many of our children to read by the Third and Fourth grades, they must be tutored. At Increase Miller, there are approximately 66 children between the Second and Fourth grades who are being pulled out of their classrooms to be taught to read by the reading specialists. Only after our children experience this failure and their self-confidence suffers, does our educational system and its remedial reading programs teach Systematic Phonics, providing them with the skills necessary to read. Why do we save these important skills only to fall back on when all else fails? Doesn't it make more sense to give them to our children the first time around? Perhaps we'd save time, money, and our children's' egos.

Mixing some Phonics in with Whole Language is not the answer. The two processes are totally different. One emphasizes memorization, sight reading, and a lot of guesswork. The other emphasizes set rules for decoding the alphabet, blending consonant and vowel sounds, and reading words from left to right. Combining the two only creates confusion.

We need to decide where we will go with this important information mainly for our children's sakes, but also because of the rising cost. We're all so proud of our schools. We can and should be at the forefront of this movement back to Phonics.

We would very much appreciate hearing your thoughts on this critical subject. Thank you for your time.

The Superintendent responds