FIDELITY OR EDUCATIONAL MALPRACTICE?

Fidelity is a term often misused by the designers of commercially-prepared reading interventions and by decision-makers outside the classroom. Teachers are told they must implement an evidence-based program with “fidelity”. This term has been misinterpreted in an educational setting to mean following the instructional recipe exactly as written. In other words, fidelity means that teachers are required to follow the directions and do exactly what the program designers tell them to do without question or variation when implementing a reading intervention.