In the tradition of Why Johnny Can't Read written by Rudolph Flesch in the 1950s, Leaving Johnny Behind provides a comprehensive examination of the barriers that deny children adequate literacy training. This book describes the obstacles faced by a school principal from Milwaukee's central city when he attempted to implement research-based reading practices. Upon further examination, he discovered that the reading establishment generally rejects the product of legitimate science, choosing instead to engage in a never-ending interfusion of the latest innovations, modifications, and gimmicks. This condition, Anthony Pedriana observes, has a disparate impact on poor and minorities, those who suffer from dyslexia and other forms of reading disability, and those for whom English is a second language.
But unlike Flesch who stressed the differences between phonics and holistic practices, Pedriana seeks common ground among reading practitioners. He notes that there is plenty in the data for both sides to love and that failing to take advantage of that convergence is to mock our high-minded expressions of "children first."