"Why Johnny Can't Read" from 1954 is as fresh as ever.

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Johnny-Cant-Read-about/dp/0060913...

The Gifted and Talented magnet school in St. Paul now has the name Capitol Hill. I don't know if that is a successor school to the one you remember.

In general, I'm not sure how schools have been teaching reading in specific places in the relevant generations, but I would agree with the critics who say that reading could have been better taught than it usually was in school over the last few generations.

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Johnny-Cant-Read-about/dp/00609134...

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Read-Thinking-Learning-about...

http://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Dyslexia-Complete-Science-B...

http://www.amazon.com/Early-Reading-Instruction-Science-Brad...

Best wishes in your continued efforts to add to your technical vocabulary. I learn new words fairly regularly here on HN.