Sunday, June 12, 2016

Reading the Tea Leaves in CCSD's Literacy Cuts

No skill matters more than literacy. 

Several years ago awakened by the P&C to the need to teach all students to read (!) , the Charleston County School District initiated a literacy program to prevent entering high schoolers from reading at the third-grade level or below. Former superintendent McGinley vowed to affect the abysmal reading scores of these unfortunates.


What happened? Did the horrendous budget shortfall cause the announced cut-backs in CCSD's literacy programs, or was the former superintendent's program both ineffective and too expensive for its meager results? Since our local paper seems determined to protect McGinley's reputation at all costs, we'll probably never know the full story. See charleston-county-school-district-slashes-literacy-program for some details.
Promising that literacy will improve, the new superintendent has revamped the program to cut costs, but will it also be more effective? Only time will tell, of course, but the cuts fall hardest on the poor and black, those who constitute the majority of students unable to read their own textbooks. 
Where are the cuts that fall on the most privileged students in the district?

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