What the data shows, contra the report (107 page PDF) cited in this article, is that disadvantaged students perform significantly worse in reading than advantaged students (illustrated). Therefore, if a country wishes to address a weaker literacy score, as suggested here, the appropriate remedy is to address the needs of the disadvantaged population. And by this what I mean is not some sort of specialized 'education for poor people' such as ' a strong focus on phonics-based decoding skills in the early years' and ' a knowledge-rich curriculum' but rather concrete efforts to ensure disadvantaged students share the same advantages as their wealthier peers (which is far more than the 'whole language' straw man set up in the document).
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