It’s Time for California to Open the Book on Phonics

If the members of the State Board of Education have their thinking caps on today, their vote on reading textbooks will be guided entirely by what’s best for California schoolchildren. The decision, which will implement the state’s new emphasis on phonics training, will inevitably boost some textbook publishers at the expense of others. That’s unfortunate, perhaps, but must not influence the board’s decision, which should focus solely on which books are the best.

In May, the board adopted a detailed policy designed to raise the reading skills of California students from the national basement, where they have long languished. Test scores released last year indicated that only four in 10 California children could read proficiently by the fourth grade, tying California with Louisiana for last place.

The state board and Gov. Pete Wilson attribute much of that failure to a drift by school districts and classroom teachers away from traditional phonics-based reading instruction toward the so-called whole language approach. The latter relies on students picking up letter sounds and spelling in the course of reading and being read to, while phonics stresses letters, letter sounds, spelling and other basic elements of language.

The governor has tied extra textbook funding for individual school districts, along with funds for retraining teachers, to adoption of the phonics approach. Districts hoping for some of that additional money must buy textbooks that have been approved for phonics instruction by the Board of Education.

Not surprisingly, then, textbook publishers have a big stake in the vote scheduled for today, an action in which the board will establish a new list of approved texts. Millions of dollars in California sales can result from inclusion on the list; so might sales outside California as other states return to phonics-based reading education. By the same token, failure to win approval would cost publishers dearly.

Two textbook publishers, the Wright Group and Rigby Educational Co., have reason to fear that the board will exclude their texts: Some critics contend that the books from the two companies tilt too far toward the whole language approach. The Wright Group has sought help from a Los Angeles law firm that includes former Gov. George Deukmejian, who has made calls on the publisher’s behalf.

The stakes in today’s vote make this sort of high-profile lobbying understandable. The books up for review embody a wide range of instructional approaches. Most represent a first step toward a more effective reading curriculum for California’s children. Taking that step, rather than placating all comers, ought to be the board’s goal.