ABOUT
Dr. Lisa O. Guidry

I earned a PhD from LSU in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in reading
and special education. I have over 20 years of diverse teaching experience with PK -
10th grade students (in regular and special settings). I also taught pre-service and
practicing teachers in undergraduate and graduate university programs at Florida State University and University of Louisiana at Monroe. Both my research and instructional interests center on early reading intervention and the prevention of reading disabilities.

I continue to be resolute about my passion of leveling the playing field for struggling
readers. It may interest you to know that schools have been failing to meet the needs of many students since the early 1900s. The need for education reform began with the passage of the compulsory attendance laws. The standard grade was first introduced in Massachusetts in 1847, before all children were required to attend school.

In his book Laggard in the Schools (1909) Leonard P. Ayres provided the first account of the discrepancy between the goals of the public schools and the underachievement of many students. Ayres reported that 33.7% of all elementary school children failed to demonstrate mastery of age-to-grade standards. Readers of this blog might feel much
like the little boy in “The Emperor’s New Clothes” when he realizes that the emperor has no clothes. Recent reform efforts seem to have been sewn with invisible thread.