AVKO Educational Research Foundation

Short Biography of Don McCabe

Research Director, AVKO Educational Research Foundation: Born and raised in Flint, Michigan, the home of General Motors and the C.S. Mott Foundation

McCabe graduated from Flint Technical High School in 1950 as the class salutatorian.
Received his A.A. degree from Flint Junior College in 1952.
Received his Ph.B. degree from the University of Detroit in 1954.
Was drafted into the Army Security Agency (ASA), sent to the Army Language School to learn Russian, and eventually to a military intelligence base just outside of Kyoto, Japan.
Received his M.A. from the University of Detroit in 1962 and his A.B.T., the non-honorary, non-recognized degree from Michigan State University in 1985 after having completed all the course requirements for the Ph.D. degree.
Began his teaching career in 1959 and taught high school and junior high until 1976 when he became the full-time Research Director of the AVKO Foundation.
Is listed in Who's Who, The Yearbook of Experts, Authorities, and Spokespersons, as well as many other sourcebooks in the field of special education.
Is the author of over forty different books and articles relating to the teaching of reading and spelling including The Patterns of English Spelling, the only reference tool in existence in which a teacher or researcher can find all the words that follow any particular spelling pattern.
Has done the unthinkable in the reading profession. He has studied what older "almost-non-readers" can and cannot read and compared his findings with what is and isn't taught. Lo and behold, these culturally or functionally illiterates had not learned what they had not been taught, i.e., the things good readers and good spellers somehow learn without being taught.
Has discovered that English does have an internal logic that good readers and good spellers somehow subconsciously learn without being taught. Dyslexics tend to be logical and try to follow what they have been taught. But the way reading is taught today has nothing to do with this internal logic. English has highly consistent logical patterns. So, if we exclude the very few (but highly common) "insane" words such as was and does, English can be said to be 99.9% phonically consistent. The anti-phonics people fail to realize the vast difference between phonetics, phonemics, and phonics.
Is trying to spread the concept that adult community education programs should offer classes for those parents or spouses of dyslexics who would like to learn how to tutor their own. At present, only the very rich can afford tutors on a daily basis. But even the poor, McCabe believes, can afford to take classes that would enable them to learn what they can do at home to help their own children learn to read and write.

If you have comments about this website or questions concerning spelling, phonics, learning disabilities, homeschooling, etc., you may always e-mail DonMcCabe@aol.com. We appreciate any comments that will help us make this website even more useful.

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or Write:
Don McCabe, Research Director
AVKO Educational Research Foundation 3084 Willard Road, Suite W Birch Run, MI 48415-9404

All donations are greatly appreciated. If you would like to support our mission which is to raise the level of literacy to the point where the words, illiteracy, phonemic awareness, learning disabilities, dysgraphia, family literacy, adult literacy, and illegible handwriting will no longer have relevance, please mail your tax-deductible check (in U.S. dollars) to The AVKO Foundation, 3084 Willard Road, Suite W, Birch Run, MI 48415-9404. The AVKO Foundation is recognized by the IRS as a 501(C)3 publicly supported organization working with teachers, parents, tutors, and home schooling parents, publishing materials developed by its research, and providing free daily tutoring at its local reading clinic.