Saxon Phonics -- a Fulfillment Term Paper

" (Official Website, 2004)

But although this act specifies quantifiable results, and phonics may be more easily tested in quantifiable methods, there is no proof as to the superiority of this method. "Saxon Publishers salutes our federal government in its belief that every child can learn." (Official Website, 2004)

It states that Saxon Publishers salutes our federal government in its belief that every child can learn, an assertion repeated upon the act's website. (NCLB, 2002) The publishing company additionally advertises its correlation with the strategies advocated by NCLB, but does not specify if the act itself is good, only that NCLB has passed as policy. It does not state that the fact the pedagogical methodology of the Saxon organization is similar to NCLB and, more fundamentally from an educator's point-of-view, if the NCLB act's stress upon standardized tests really promote learning at all, and the stress of the act upon standardized, rather than individuated testing, might be in error as a national policy.

The stress of Saxon learning upon home schooling upon its website further raises red ideological flags as to its agenda, as this method of instruction is quite popular amongst some of the Christian organizations that the current administration has endorsed for reasons other than promoting pure learning. Christianbook.com strongly endorses Saxon methods, but not because of any quantifiable data that supports the program's proven success in learning. Rather, it merely stresses that the Saxon phonics method has the advantage of providing a kind of standardization of learning for inexperienced home schooling parents."As the parent teaching at home, you have so much to organize, order, assimilate and finally, teach." (Christianbook.com, 2004) Saxon, "even includes a lesson dialogue with possible student responses, so you are ready for everything," and need do minimal lesson planning, if you simply follow the guide.

One of the most applauded features of Saxon Phonics on Christianbook.com is the Saxon "succinct materials list, listed for every day. Since all the written work takes place in the student book, the teacher's edition can be used for subsequent students, making this a sound investment." (Christianbook.com, 2004) But what if the 'subsequent' students have different learning needs, abilities, and paces?

The Saxon product's easy standardization of methodology and cookie-cutter approach explains its favored status amongst those who advocate standardized national testing as a kind of quality control of student performance. But it does not answer whether success at tests, after students are taught to excel at the specific skills tested at a test, really contributes to longstanding enjoyment at reading. Nor does it offer any real quantitative data to support its claims.

Works Cited

Christianbook.com. (2004) Retrieved 23 Jan 2005 at http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/cms_content?page=233692&sp=59987&p=1013335

Saxon Publishing. Offical Website. Retrieved 23 Jan 2005 at http://www.saxonpublishers.com/school/phonics/index.jsp;jsessionid=DDA2C0BB08DCF1029BF0F80449E57B59

NCLB. No Child Left Behind (2004) Retrieved 23 Jan 2005 at http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml.....