Response to Cummins: The OHRC Right to Read Report will Move Ontario into the 21st Century

Abstract

In the April 2022 issue of the Journal of Teaching and Learning, Dr. Jim Cummins responded to the Ontario Human Rights Commission (2022a, 2022b) report on the Right to Read: Public Inquiry into Human Rights Issues Affecting Students with Reading Disabilities. He expressed several views on literacy education that are moderate and consistent with research. However, his very critical appraisal of the report is misdirected. The first section of the present article documents several recommendations and positions that Cummins attributes to the report but that it does not actually contain. The second section identifies five ways in which this report will bring Ontario’s special education policy into the 21st century, which Cummins has missed. The Right to Read report provides a paradigm for special education that Ontario should now apply to additional domains such as mathematics and social and emotional learning.

Right to Read Implies Opportunity to Read

“…My critique highlighted the importance and urgency of the OHRC report's recommendation that Ontario educators and policymakers set up an assessment and intervention infrastructure to ensure that children who are having difficulty acquiring decoding skills receive timely and effective support to assist their journey to literacy. On this central point, I am fully in agreement with Klein (2022) that the Right to Read report makes a highly valuable contribution, or as he put it, that it "will move Ontario special education policy into the 21 st century" (p. 102).…”

“…Thus, the report fails to address the logical "elephant in the room"-how is it possible for Ontario students to be among the most proficient readers in Canada and in the world when, according to the OHRC, the approaches to reading instruction implemented in Ontario schools are ineffective and devoid of scientific support? Klein (2022) does attempt to address this issue: "In attributing a manufactured crisis to the R2R Report, Cummins misreads it and fails to take into account that reading achievement comprises a distribution; it is consistent and accurate to claim that many Ontario students are learning to read well while many others are struggling" (p. 97). This claim may be consistent and accurate, but it says very little-virtually every educational jurisdiction across Canada and internationally could make such a claim.…”

“…I very much welcome Perry Klein's (2022) response to my critique (Cummins, 2022) of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) (2022a, 2022b) report entitled Right to Read, published in February 2022. Dialogue about the issues raised in the OHRC report has the potential to identify common ground, which is frequently overlooked when the teaching of phonics and other foundational reading skills is promoted in opposition to "balanced literacy."…”

“…However, within the context of the OHRC report, the EQAO data contribute rhetorically to an inaccurate narrative of educational malpractice that is at variance with the strong literacy performance of Ontario students, as revealed in cross-Canada and international assessments. 133 In summary, as Klein (2022) points out, the authors of the OHRC Right to Read report do not use the term "crisis" to characterize the reading performance of Ontario students. However, they do present a scathing indictment of the Ontario approach to reading instruction, which they reinforce with a narrative that highlights literacy attainment gaps (e.g., among special education students) while acknowledging only minimally, and in passing, the fact that multiple cross-Canada and international studies have identified Ontario students as among the most proficient in the world in reading attainment.…”

“…Scapegoating "Balanced Literacy" Klein (2022) offers the useful clarification that the OHRC's condemnation of balanced literacy approaches to reading instruction is directed at particular programs that it views as advocating minimal teaching of phonics: "That is, it appears not to be balance in literacy education that the R2R Report objects to, but a de-emphasis on phonics instruction" (p. 100). Specifically, the OHRC report provides the following description of the "three-cueing system" and balanced literacy approaches:…”