Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

A Reason For Hope In Portland

Dr. Charles L. Hopson, a native of Prescott and a 1976 graduate of Prescott High School, is the principal at Harriet Tubman Middle School in Portland, Ore. He is the son of Elder and Mrs. Charles H. Hopson. Dr. Hopson was recently lauded in the Oregonian, the newspaper in Portland, for the progress he has made at the middle school in teaching students how to read the proper way: through phonics.

Herewith is a portion of the Oregonian column by David Reinhard.

. . . Charles Hopson is a principal undertaking ... instructional efforts, and doing it at a much tougher middle-school level.

"It's a local story that should interest two groups: (1) people who believe you can educate all kids, no matter how poor and what their skin pigment, and (2) any Portland parents, no matter their income, who have asked why their public-school students just can't read at grade level.

"Four years ago, Hopson inherited a middle school where almost 90 percent of the students were not reading at grade level. He had seventh-graders who were uncomfortable reading aloud. They couldn't decode words. Tubman's feeder schools and the district's 'whole- language' or 'guess and go' approach to reading had failed these kids. Here they were in middle school and they couldn't really read. They were the victims, says Leon Lessinger, an education professor at the University of North Florida, of 'educational malpractice.'

"Lessinger was in town two weeks ago to see how Hopson and the Harriet Tubman staff addressed what they deemed the school's 'crisis in reading.'

"Actually, prophet may not be quite the word for Hopson. He and Tubman teachers in this collaborative effort may be more reactionary than prophetic. The Direct Instructional System for Teaching and Remediation (DISTAR) at Tubman is a program that's been around for decades. It fell out of favor with school educators, but not before government-sponsored studies of various instructional methods found that it was the only one that guaranteed success.

"DISTAR is an interactive regime of scripted drills and sequential lessons that is phonic- based for reading instruction. At Tubman, reading instruction takes up 45 minutes the longest period in the heart of the school day.

"At the lower-skill levels, teachers snap their fingers and ask students, individually and in unison, to repeat words based on patterns in the workbooks. They're working on their decoding skills. They learn to sound-out words. The Tubman classrooms ring out with kids, as teacher Artelia Rogers says, 'strutting their stuff.'

"The drills repeat and review the material and constant testing determines whether the student has achieved mastery. If students don't master the material, they don't move on the next level. The days of passing kids through are over at Tubman. Says Hopson, 'I refuse to be a part of that anymore.'

"At the higher-skill levels, classrooms are quieter and less teacher-directed. Students work on comprehension.

"Yes, there are three levels at each grade, but Hopson doesn't worry about the evils of 'grouping' or hurting kids' 'self-esteem.' He's too worried about seeing that kids actually learn to read. He also understands that self-esteem comes from achievement, not vice versa. He and the staff see the changes in their internal testing. Since September, 90 kids have moved from the lowest to the middle level, and another 60 students have moved from the middle to highest level.

"The students are told if they're if they're not reading at grade level, and this honesty works to challenge them, says Hopson. Two related things have changed: Discipline problems have decreased, and the student morale has increased at Tubman. Now, as Hopson says, 'They're proud of the fact that they can actually read.'

"Unlike those bogus self-esteem exercises, they have something to be proud of.

"Watching these at-risk kids go through their paces watching, them at long last, being able to read after their years of failure cold bring tears to your eyes.

"I watched with Lessinger and a group of largely African-American teachers, administrators and school board members who came to Tubman from Florida. Portland's Charles Hopson, it seems, is something of a prophet a reactionary prophet in other lands and school districts."