Interview with Louisa Moats

Isn't it wild to think 2001, and when did we really start hearing more and more and more about the structured literacy and the science of reading? And does it, does it frustrate you a little to think, "I knew we knew these things, and other things kind of, I guess, took over," you know? And, and-

It's-- there's no end to the frustration and outrage.

It's just, uh, yesterday I was at, um, a, a personal event, met a young teacher in training in, here in our state who told me what was in the courses that she was taking and what she had to do, and the lack of information aligned with the scientific evidence base.

The refusal of this particular college to adapt what it was teaching, um, the lack of accountability in the whole system from the state leadership on down, the fact that, um, uh...

So what's frustrating at this point, um, is although we're making progress, um, actually Dr. Lyon and I are working on a paper right now, that's the other thing I'm doing today, um, talking about where we still have to go.

And where we still have to go, because, I mean, talk about being frustrated, he oversaw the development of this research base, uh, got the National Reading Panel report funded and written, uh, and, uh, retired for a while, but now he's kind of come back into the arena.

I guess he has a renewed energy.

And he, it, he, he's just so outraged that, that we still have all these kids who are not learning to read, and our national picture is not great.

There are a few states that are standouts for making progress in spite of the general downward trend.

So we know what to do.

This is what's so frustrating.

We know what to do.

Actually, we've known what to do for a long time.

And what's missing is the kind of accountability and requirement for everyone involved in this profession to know what the science has established, uh, and to be accountable for acting on it.

So when I say everyone in the profession, it's not individual teachers.

It's the systems that support individual teachers and train individual teachers and, uh, deci- and, and decide what, uh, we should all be accountable for.

And it's the systems that are not now, um, behaving as a mature profession behaves.

And this is what Dr. Lyon and I are writing about at the moment, is what it would take to get education to move that last step into being a true profession.

And we find it, um, disheartening and ironic that, um, the federal leadership is, you know, has been, uh, well destroyed, is probably not too strong a word.

Uh, so what we have to do is find ways to get the 50 states to work together in partnership with, uh, private philanthropy.

Uh, because in, like in Mississippi, uh, which is the shining example of what can be done when all the systems are aligned, a very wealthy philanthropist, um, Clayborne Barksdale Gave $100 million to the state to get all these things in place that have made a huge and enduring difference in the educational outcomes in that poorest of poor states with the most disadvantaged kids in the lousiest circumstances.

So, um, uh, if, if the federal government isn't going to provide the leadership and the funding, we just have to, um, have a more, um, state-led effort through whatever state consortiums there are.

And it's-- this is not a-- it should not be politicized.

E- everybody agrees [coughs] the kids need to learn to read, [laughs] right? You know, it's, it's not a Republican or Democratic, uh, uh, shouldn't be a, a funding issue or a campaign issue.

It should be a national concern that on all the international measures we have, we are not doing well.