DISTRICT STUCK WITH OUT-OF-DATE READING BOOKS; CURRICULUM PURCHASED IN 1997 USING STATE RECOMMENDATIONS.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Staff Writer

When the Castaic Union School District shopped for language arts books three years ago, officials followed all the state recommendations and purchased the top-rated text.

Now the state Board of Education has changed the rules, leaving the district with a series of books that teaches what now is considered an inadequate method of reading and spelling.

The discrepancy involves the return to phonics.

``When we purchased those books, a thorough and conscientious process was followed,'' said Diann DePasquale, the district's director of educational services. ``It was state-approved. It was rated very highly.

``We bought the book we felt was best for our kids based on what the state recommended,'' DePasquale said. ``Now the state is switching directions on us. It's unfortunate.''

The Language Arts book series purchased in 1997 is used currently in grades K-5 in Castaic and is valid for at least seven years. Castaic's language books focus on the ``whole language'' reading method, abandoned last year by the state Department of Education.

Parent Laurie Robinson is upset that her child is being taught with a method the state now considers oudated.

``Why would they want to inadequately teach our kids,'' Robinson said. ``To have kids come out of the district and not know how to read - it's a bad reflection on them.''

The whole-language approach to reading has children learn entire words through context and pictures and stresses literature and early writing without regard to spelling and grammar.

Phonics, by contrast, teaches the sounds of the letters or groups of letters and has pupils sound out ``decodable'' words. With phonics, children learn a solid base that can expand their reading skills faster, proponents say.

Phonics, described as an old method made new again, recently was resurrected as the preferred method when California educators noticed a big decrease in student achievement - especially reading.

The legislature passed a law in 1995 requiring state-adopted reading textbooks to include phonics. In the spring of the following year, the state board adopted a reading plan emphasizing phonics while still including literature.

But it wasn't until last year, with the passage of state Senate Bill 2519, that the state Board of Education stressed phonics instruction in all reading and set aside textbook funds for schools to buy new state mandated books.

While currently the phonics-based books are being sampled at Live Oak Elementary School and are used in special education classrooms for children having trouble reading, officials don't know when all pupils will have them.

``We never consider anything for less than six months,'' DePasquale said of the textbook selection process. ``(Robinson's) request is that we get something new almost overnight. It's just not the process we follow.''

Since learning that the district has not adopted the most current reading program, Robinson said that she has been teaching her daughter at home.

``I've been forced to teach my child at home because I don't want her to suffer,'' Robinson said. ``I just want my child to get a good education.''