Another excellent op-ed about reading: Not a SKILL, but a knowledge based necessity.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/daniel-willingham/willingham-reading-is-not-a-sk.html

While this debate is going on about the national standards movement for all students, I am reminded of the many IEPs--Individualized Education Programs--for students with disabilities that schools provide across our land. Too many, focus on reading skills: decoding, encoding, reading comprehension, fluency, etc. ---without relating reading to the knowledge that students need to learn and know. Reading is not an isolated skill, as this op-ed points out. if students continue with IEPs through elementary school--then middle school and even beyond, when do the knowledge-based reading programs kick in?