January 27, 2006

How to Teach Reading

To the Editor:

Australia is considering a bad solution to a nonexistent problem ("Australian Educators Criticize Training of Teachers," The Chronicle, January 6). The "Teaching Reading" report that is the basis for the claim that Australia's teacher training is abysmal shows the opposite: Reading scores of 14-year-olds in Australia have remained stable from 1975 to 1998, and the national benchmark report, referred to in "Teaching Reading," reveals an increase in reading scores since