Hey, Hechinger Report, are you sure you want to promote such stuff?
Why would a respectable news organization publish bologna?
I provide here my open letter to the leadership at the Hechinger Report. I sent this message on 21 November 2022.
Given the HechingerReport’s support of ineffective instruction (see https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-a-call-for-rejecting-the-newest-reading-wars/), I am likely to discontinue my support of the organization. I have long respected the organization’s education reporting in what I thought was the tradition of Fred Hechinger, so I’ve sent $$ to the organization.
But if the organization is now advocating practices and procedures that are inimical to children’s long-term outcomes, I shan’t continue to recommend Hechinger.org, and I shall no longer donate. Providing a platform for unfounded and ill-reasoned perspectives regarding reading education will encourage people like me—advocates for effective instruction, people knowledgable about efficacy research, readers concerned about their children’s future—I predict, to abandon Hechinger.
I encourage Hechinger staff to examine research about reading instruction. A dispassionate review will almost surely show that promoting ineffective instruction is a mistake. I hope that such a review will lead Hechinger to disavow ineffective practices in education. I hope such a review will encourage Hechinger to advocate for instruction that has been scientifically documented to have beneficial effects on learners’ outcomes.
JohnL
John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UVA School of Ed & HD
Co-editor, Exceptional Children
Editor,
A representative of Hechinger replied to my letter to the org. She indicated that the message I questioned was, indeed, a letter to the editor, not a statement of Hechiinger's position and that Hechinger had actually published a notice about E. Hanford's recent podcast.
She hoped that I wouldn't stop sending support ($$) to Hechinger!
I replied that it might be wise to add a disclaimer to such letters, indicating that they did not represent the views of the organization. She replied that she thought there was such a disclaimer, but that she could not find it!