Phonics Spells Business for Entrepreneurs

Don’t be fooled by the hokey name or the zebra-striped rug on the office floor. Zoo-phonics means business. And this is a banner year for the thriving company that was hatched in a garage.

“We’re crazy busy,” says President Charlene Wrighton.

Phonics is back in California, and that means business is booming for entrepreneurs large and small.

California is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to equip classrooms with new textbooks and retrain teachers as the state returns from a decade-long foray into a teaching method known as whole language.

As a result, giant textbook publishers are supplementing their reading programs with “kits” that include alphabet bingo and ABC cards.

Toy companies are marketing games like “phonics mats” (picture Twister with talking letters), while mom-and-pop outfits are hawking such classroom accessories as phonics tests and skills workbooks.

The state offers little guidance to schools as they sort through the avalanche of products, and experts warn buyers to beware of unsubstantiated claims.

But many instructors call the phonics programs useful classroom tools. And their word of mouth fuels sales--which are big, as in B-I-G.

“Obviously, people like us are going to produce what we think the educational community wants,” said Richard Sevaly, a former elementary school principal who started Teacher’s Friend Publications in his Riverside home.

In September, the company unveiled its newest product, Word Wall Words!, collections of brightly colored, plastic-coated words that can be used on felt boards to teach letters, sounds and rhymes.

“Five years ago, the buzz was whole language-literature,” Sevaly said. “Now the buzz is phonics, phonics.”

That buzz is being generated by California’s political and educational establishments.

State leaders from Gov. Pete Wilson to local school superintendents are calling for students to receive instruction in phonics--a reaction to dismal scores posted by California children on national tests.

New laws require students to learn letter-sound relationships, and for classroom materials and teacher training to reflect the mandate.

“Doors are totally open now,” said Zoo-phonics’ Wrighton, a former teacher. “The attitude has totally changed. It’s wonderful.”

Some days, it’s hard for teachers and parents to avoid the onslaught.

Sales forces promote goods on television and radio. Telemarketers sell by phone and mail. Virtually all pitch their products on the Internet.

“They’re always trying to show you how their program will meet the academic needs of your children,” said Cecilia Manley, principal of Adelanto Academy of Math and Science near Victorville.

Manley said she receives about five sales inquiries a day at the elementary school--so many that she has her secretary screen the calls.

Education catalogs and brochures also arrive daily, offering phonics flashcards, work sheets and training seminars.

Manley sifts through it all, attempting to make sense of competing claims and the accompanying testimonials from professors, teachers and parents.

“I want someone who is giving me research-based information,” Manley said. “I want to know if I’m going to be a guinea pig.”

Principals such as Manley have wide latitude when it comes to buying supplemental reading programs. Local school officials can spend 30% of their state textbook funds on such materials, but they get little help judging the value of the offerings.

That’s because the state Department of Education only gives a cursory review of the supplemental programs--ensuring, for example, that they do not promote religion or reinforce stereotypes. Some 37,000 books, games and other programs have met this standard and are included in a catalog of “state approved” materials.

By contrast, “core” textbook programs go through a far more rigorous review to ensure that they include all the topics the state has decided children should learn. Schools can spend 100% of their state textbook funds on such adopted materials, which are currently produced by just 10 publishers.

Experts say companies can boast freely about results because of the lack of oversight.

“The fact that the name ‘phonics’ is on the cover doesn’t mean that it has a basis in science,” said Doug Carnine, an education professor at the University of Oregon and director of the National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators.

Farfetched claims of success triggered a federal investigation into perhaps the best-known of the programs, Hooked on Phonics, which features taped drills of letters and sounds chanted to rhythmic elevator music.

Ads said that the program had helped nearly 1 million students learn to read--teaching at home without assistance and helping those with learning disabilities such as dyslexia.

“We’re so confident of your success that we give you a 30-day written money-back guarantee,” the company’s maker boasted.

In 1995, the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Hooked on Phonics’ maker, alleging that Gateway Educational Products made misleading claims without reliable evidence.

Promises and Testimonials

The two sides reached an agreement in June of that year. The FTC barred the Orange-based Gateway from making unsubstantiated claims; the company admitted no wrongdoing. Four months later, Gateway declared bankruptcy.

Now Hooked on Phonics is back--and, its new owners say, much improved.

Chip Adams, a venture capitalist from San Francisco, bought Gateway and has retooled the phonics kit.

The updated version, unveiled earlier this year, still has taped phonics exercises.

But it also features illustrated stories by noted children’s authors such as Charlotte Zolotow and David McPhail.

Adams has a high-profile academic on his team--Ted Mitchell, the former dean of UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Mayor Richard Riordan’s education advisor.

Mitchell helped oversee development of the new kit, and he sits on the board of directors of the renamed Gateway Learning Corp. He says the new Hooked on Phonics is grounded in research on early reading that stresses the need for a balance of phonics and literature.

In radio ads that began running nationwide two weeks ago, Adams offers a refund if parents and teachers don’t notice “a dramatic increase in your child’s reading skills in just four weeks.”

The makers of other phonics programs offer their own guarantees.

One of Hooked on Phonics’ chief competitors, the Phonics Game, promises “one full letter grade improvement in English on your child’s next report card or your money back.”

The program consists of six card games. Players identify letters, sounds or spelling rules on their cards and can then take matching cards from other players’ hands. The player with the most cards wins.

A spokeswoman said there are no studies to verify the promise of a one-grade increase but maintained that students make progress.

“Our testing shows that their reading improves,” said Barbara Meserve, director of education for the game’s maker. “If their reading improves, their grades should improve.”

Meserve added, “We know it works. We have lots of testimonials. That’s why we stand behind the product.”

To Make Learning Fun

Many teachers welcome the phonics programs in their classrooms.

Joanne Doyle is one of the believers.

The reading resource teacher said she uses the Phonics Game with her students at Tassajara Hills Elementary near Oakland because it makes reading fun and instructive.

“The kids love the game and they are learning so much out of it,” she said.

Earlier this month, Doyle expanded her Phonics Game collection. She plunked down $240 of her own money at a reading conference to buy the Phonics Game Junior, a CD-ROM and 10 story booklets.

“If you play it the right way, students really learn,” she said.

Such praise kindles interest, and creates sales, among elementary school instructors.

The informal network of teachers--and the companies that cater to them--were on display earlier this month at the California Reading Assn.’s conference in Sacramento.

Thousands of teachers from across the state snapped up free books and CD-ROMs, taking them back to their classrooms.

The conference was a feast for sellers and buyers alike.

Textbook publishers showed off their latest series. Vendors hawked everything from “word walls” to professional development seminars.

The Phonics Game did a brisk business. So did Zoo-phonics.

For three days, teachers milled around its zebra-striped rugs and leopard-spotted balloons.

It was a typical outing for the company that uses animal characters to teach the alphabet.

Several teachers bought Zoo-phonics’ new CD-ROM. Others purchased the company’s kits that include animal picture cards, cassette tapes, activity work sheets and practice videos.

The conference was just one outing for a company that conducts about 250 workshops a year at schools, hotels and educational meetings.

Wrighton said Zoo-phonics expects to sell $1.3 million worth of merchandise this year, about double what it sold before phonics returned to California four years ago.

Now the company--which was launched by Wrighton, her sister, who also is a teacher, and an illustrator--is expanding.

Extra business offices, warehousing and a conference room have been added to the headquarters, a former pizza parlor and doctor’s office in Groveland just outside Yosemite.

And the company is hiring as it gears up for a shot at the largest market of all.

Wrighton and her partners want to be selected as a state-adopted publisher next year.

That would elevate Zoo-phonics to a core reading program and allow schools to spend 100% of their state textbook money on the kits.

Wrighton and her staff are busy creating new lesson plans and teachers manuals for a payoff that could be enormous.

“Everything is hitting fast,” she said. “I won’t be sleeping for a long time.”

Reading by 9 / START THE PRESSES: School newspapers let students try their skills and offer a reading incentive. B2