Adolescent reading interventionist AMDG
Kentucky
Joined April 2018
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Tyler Stevens retweeted
Our likeness to Christ also matures in the midst of difficulties, such as when work seems fruitless, when our strength wanes or when we must start anew. Eventually endurance leaves its mark. Over the years, a gaze can become more merciful, hands more willing to serve and words more capable of comforting. May trials always find us united to Jesus, so that they may help us to grow in His love. #ApostolicJourney #Uruguay
Tyler Stevens retweeted
Jean Stockard and her team tracked down every study of Direct Instruction they could find: 377. Average effect size: .56. Her line: "more effective than other programs by a long shot." 👇
Tyler Stevens retweeted
Tolkien was at the Somme. His life and work mingle: “They lie in all the pools, pale faces, deep deep under the dark water. I saw them: grim faces and evil, and noble faces and sad. Many faces proud and fair, and weeds in their silver hair. But all foul, all rotting, all dead.”
Tyler Stevens retweeted
Carl Hendrick came to Direct Instruction through cognitive science. Beginners need knowledge before they can think like experts. His line in today's Sold a Story: "You can't really connect the dots if you haven't got any dots." 👇
Tyler Stevens retweeted
Public service announcement. Anyone who uses Jacob Cohen's recommendations as guides to the interpretation of effect sizes (0.2: small; 0.5: medium; 0.8: large) demonstrates that (a) they didn't read what Cohen said, and (b) they are clueless about effect sizes in education.
Tyler Stevens retweeted
Read about the evidence for Direct Instruction. There's a lot more to look at since Project Follow Through. apmreports.org/story/2026/11…
Tyler Stevens retweeted
It’s disappointing how many awful takes on learning come from within the field of education itself.
Imagine some portion of pro basketball coaches deciding that all they'll do during practice is have a group discussion about the sport and their relationship with it.
Thanks to the level of accountability and incentives in athletics, that situation would naturally resolve: the team would get their butt handed to them every game, and the coach would get fired.
It all comes down to measuring performance and holding coaches accountable for obtaining performance results.
But in education, lots of people avoid measuring performance or hide behind nebulous proxy metrics instead (e.g., engagement).
Tyler Stevens retweeted
Memorisation was unjustly crucified for decades as somehow mindless. But fluidity of instantaneous recall- from performing Hamlet to times tables- is the bedrock of fast and coherent comprehension.
Tyler Stevens retweeted
The most anti-education argument pushed by progressives has been the disparagement of memorization. It stemmed from the traditional classroom practice of recitation, which was indeed robotic, but the breadth of the condemnation has had long term negative effects.
This is the best video I have watched for a while. Thank you @amolrajan and @daisychristo
Tyler Stevens retweeted
"Gaining a broad knowledge of words, and therefore also a knowledge of the things to which words refer, must be among the most practical and significant educational goals in our time."
-E. D. Hirsch 1996
Excellent episode. I would love to work for a principal that values high expectations and quality instruction like Thaddeus Lott. It’s sad that fantastical progressivist thinking has buried effective instruction for so long.
Episode 4 of Sold a Story Season 2 is out now. apmreports.org/episode/2026/…
Tyler Stevens retweeted
To celebrate the birthday of William Shakespeare, I’m sharing a few lines from my most favorite sonnet, Sonnet 116. I’ve converted a few of my friends to its cause, and I’m hoping you’re next. Cheers!
You can hear the entire collection in “Patrick Stewart Performs the Complete Sonnets of William Shakespeare” available now: bit.ly/PatrickStewartSonnets
@SimonAudio
#NationalShakespeareDay
Tyler Stevens retweeted
I am speechless. Thomas Aquinas College just dropped a study on the rigor of the new SAT.
It compares the 1980/87 test with 2026. The findings should terrify every parent and teacher...
Vocabulary has collapsed.
Old SAT: 70.6% of questions tested vocab.
New SAT: 15%.
The old test forced students to know a wide range of words through analogies, antonyms, and sentence completions. The new test abandoned that. Most vocab questions now just ask students to fill in one blank from context.
Reading passages also got radically shorter (average ~97 words vs 300–340).
The new test uses short expository passages and hands you the necessary background knowledge inside the text. The older tests leaned much more heavily on argumentative and persuasive writing, assumed far more historical, scientific, and cultural knowledge, and penalized students who lacked it.
This is a redefinition of what "college readiness" means.
If you believe that kids should develop rigorous vocabulary, be capable of sustained reading, and possess background knowledge, I have bad news for you. The SAT no longer measures these.
If you want a future where children can actually read difficult texts and construct complex arguments, the SAT must be replaced now.
This cannot go on.
We were concerned that the SAT has become a less reliable measure of student preparedness for a rigorous college curriculum.
So, we commissioned a study from Johns Hopkins University. What does this study tell us about the state of higher education?
The results are shocking. thaq.co/4iLThZ0
Tyler Stevens retweeted
If a student doesn't have to correct their mistake, they won't. Showing the right answer and moving on lets them skip the work. In Direct Instruction, the student fixes the mistake and then proves it.
ALT Error Correction: What should happen in the seconds after a student gets it wrong
Tyler Stevens retweeted
Critics have long argued against using Direct Instruction.
But an APM Reports review of available survey data shows that teachers who use it tend to like it. apmreports.org/story/2026/10…
Tyler Stevens retweeted
🔥 It's great to see the usual characters panicking over the notion that the same commitment to scientific evidence driving reading reform might be applied to mathematics.
We want better reading instruction, but why would we stop there?
Doesn't math deserve the same attention?
I'm sick of pseudoscience driving education. Period.
It's time to take education back and stop letting fads and ideology determine how children are taught.
Tyler Stevens retweeted
The 8 Laws of Learning, according to legendary coach John Wooden:
1. Explanation
2. Demonstration
3. Imitation
4. Repetition
5. Repetition
6. Repetition
7. Repetition
8. Repetition
Tyler Stevens retweeted
“It’s the only class I took at Harvard where people would call each other out for not having done the reading.”
Harvard students are lining up to take Hum 10:
“Applications (essays required) shot up 40% this fall with 180 incoming freshmen vying for 90 spots.”
“The class is definitely not for padding the GPA. Students read a hefty book a week and write regular essays. There is no pass/fail option. Digital devices are verboten, and attendance is taken in every lecture (pink slips for those who arrive late).”
“In their applications and in interviews, students expressed the urge to be forced to tackle classics they otherwise wouldn’t read, the need to combat frayed attention spans and the desire for an antidote to The Machine. Several mentioned with disdain that people who aren’t in the class wondered why they didn’t ‘just Chat the books,’ i.e., use AI.”
