November 16, 2023: We're covering a misguided testing approach that gives dyslexia its reputation as a "privileged" diagnosis, a robotic revival of an extinct starfish ancestor and the importance of public universities. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | Changes in how dyslexia is diagnosed could help many more children learn to read, writes Sarah Carr. Up to around 20 percent of the U.S. population has this neurological condition that makes it difficult to decipher and spell written words. Many diagnoses are missed due to race and income biases in access to testing and services. Another key barrier is the widespread use of a so-called discrepancy model to test children for learning disabilities. The model's guidelines foster the idea that for a learning disability to be present, reading performance has to fall short of IQ. In fact, most youngsters can learn to read regardless of their IQ score, but those with lower scores are often assumed to lack the "smarts" to read well.
For example: "I was thought to be too stupid to be dyslexic," psychologist Tim Odegard is quoted as saying in the story. In grade school, he received no extra help or special education services for his reading problems. He is now editor in chief of the Annals of Dyslexia and chair of excellence in dyslexic studies at Middle Tennessee State University.
What the experts say: Teachers should be empowered to intervene early with struggling readers, monitor how they respond to help and then make referrals. Another idea is to offer more no-cost or low-cost access to tests of a child's capacity for and speed at the components that make up successful reading. | | | A team of engineers and paleontologists has reconstructed a robotic mimic of a bizarre and extinct ancestor of modern starfish. The animal in question is Pleurocystites, a genus of marine invertebrate that lived about 450 million years ago during the Paleozoic era and is thought to be one of the first groups of echinoderms capable of free motion. Pleurocystites was bilaterally symmetrical, as opposed to many of its relatives, which were radially symmetrical.
Why this matters: The reconstruction creates a window into how one branch of echinoderms (the animal clade that includes starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers) might have evolved and moved around the ancient ocean floor. And this robotic revival could also spur future innovations in engineering and design.
What the experts say: "For many years, I've been trying to figure out how these extinct weirdos were living. You know, how did they move or feed?" says Imran Rahman, a paleontologist who studies animal evolutionary origins at London's Natural History Museum. The reconstruction research, which Rahman was not involved in, "is just a really, really exciting way of tackling one of these very long-standing questions." | | | Cystoid (Pleurocystites filitextus) fossilized in limestone. Credit: DK IMAGES / Science Source | | | • A simple formula makes it easy to generate prime numbers, but a million-dollar mystery remains. | 7 min read | | | • Unions bring a surprising side effect—higher vaccination rates in the wider community while overcoming pandemic politics. | 4 min read | | | • If we care about opportunity and its role in a democratic society, our focus should be on supporting and strengthening the public university system rather than on Ivy League admission policies, writes Naomi Oreskes, a science historian at Harvard University. Of the 14 million American students in four-year schools, about two thirds are in public schools, where the ethnic and racial makeup is much closer to the overall undergraduate population than it is at private schools, as well as close to the U.S. population in general. Overall, funding for public colleges dropped 9.1 percent from 2008 to 2018, Oreskes writes. Budget cuts lead to higher fees and fewer career options. In 1970 most jobs did not require a college degree. Today, for most Americans, the road to opportunity runs through public schools. | 3 min read | | | Happy National Clarinet Day! If you were/are a jazz or marching band nerd, you might enjoy this essay about science and the art of clarinet sound. The piece starts with a fluid compression discovery by Leonardo da Vinci and then gets into the anatomical details of the pharynx and larynx and how players feel their way toward creating the ideal sound. Benny Goodman is considered one of the best clarinet players of all time. Check out his orchestra's raucous rendition of the song "Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)." It's one of my favorite pieces of music. | If you have any feedback, suggestions, or spot any errors while reading these newsletters, please reach out to us. | —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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