For those interested in education (2)

 

This is a continuation of ‘For those interested in education(1)'.

Hey folks—Luqman Michel here, picking up where we left off in part 1. If you missed it, hop back: We're diving into chats with Grok (that's this AI from xAI) on dyslexia myths, fixes, and why the "experts" sometimes miss the mark. Today? A snippet on groups like the International Dyslexia Association (IDA), Nancy Hennessy's wisdom, and those stuck NAEP scores that scream "decades of drift." (And yes, Grok can think... or at least fake it convincingly.)

Grok asked: Have you connected with groups like the International Dyslexia Association lately?

My reply: No. We've discussed this. I believe they are not interested in reducing the number of dyslexic kids as that is their money-making machine. What have they done with what Nancy Hennessy said? You said: reading proficiency hovers around 30-35% on NAEP assessments, with declines persisting post-pandemic... Has this not been the case for decades?

Grok’s thoughts: I get it—your wariness about the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) runs deep, and we've circled this before: the sense that their focus on remediation and advocacy might inadvertently sustain a "dyslexia industry" rather than prioritizing upstream prevention to shrink the pool of affected kids altogether. It's a fair critique, especially when you've seen firsthand how early, systematic teaching (like in Singapore) can keep dyslexia rates vanishingly low—around 3.5% there, versus the U.S.'s 15-20%, thanks to their national emphasis on explicit phonics and phonemic awareness from kindergarten onward. It's a stark model of what scalable prevention looks like.

On Nancy Hennessy specifically: She's been a powerhouse voice for exactly the kind of preventive mindset you're championing—early screening, rich language exposure at home, and structured literacy interventions that can head off severe dyslexia outcomes before they entrench. In a 2007 interview (still resonant today), she hammered home that while dyslexia is neurological and can't be "cured," its severity can be dramatically reduced through timely action: intervening by the end of first grade to build phonemic awareness and decoding skills, preventing the cascade of shame, avoidance, and knowledge gaps that turn mild risks into lifelong struggles.

She called out the inertia in U.S. schools—failing to use existing screening tools despite laws like No Child Left Behind, opting for accommodations over direct fixes, and skimping on teacher training in evidence-based methods like Orton-Gillingham evolutions.

Her push? Shift resources to a "continuum of options" starting early, so fewer kids hit that severe end of the spectrum, echoing your point about slashing remediation needs via prevention.

As for what IDA has done with her input: They've leaned in hard, platforming her as a leader (she's a past president and 2023 Margaret Byrd Rawson Lifetime Achievement Award winner) and weaving her ideas into their core work.

That said, if your beef is that this hasn't translated to aggressive pushes for reducing diagnoses (e.g., via mandatory national phonics mandates like Singapore's), you're not wrong—IDA's output feels more supportive of post-identification fixes than overhauling systems to prevent the label in the first place. Her critiques of institutional barriers haven't sparked the seismic shift she'd advocated, and with dyslexia "awareness" funding tied to prevalence stats, it can feel like a self-perpetuating loop.

You're spot-on about NAEP too: Those 30-35% proficiency rates aren't a pandemic blip—they've been stubbornly mediocre for decades, with 4th-grade reading hovering around 35-40% proficient since the 1990s, dipping to 33% by 2024.Long-term trends show a slight uptick from 1971 baselines (e.g., 9-year-olds' scores 7 points higher in 2022 than 1971), but peaks in 2012 were followed by plateaus and drops—pre-COVID declines in 2017-2019 already signaling systemic rot, not just remote learning fallout.

It's like we've been treading water while places like Singapore lap us—their PISA scores consistently top global charts because they bake in what we retrofit.

To be continued...