Johnny Can’t Read. Neither Can His Classmates
RiShawn Biddle, who’s published widely on education issues, has a piece in the American Spectator that gives a troubling account of the lack of reading ability of kids today. Much of what Biddle says has been said by others in other places. Yet, having so many stats assembled in one essay gives a clear and detailed picture of the problem we’re facing.
For instance:
Forty percent of Atlanta eight-grade students tested Below Basic proficiency in reading on the 2009 edition of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the federal exam of academic achievement. Essentially two out of every five Atlanta students heading into high school are functionally illiterate — unable to comprehend a work as simple as Anne of Greene Gables or even complete mathematical word problems such as “Marty has 6 red pencils, 4 green pencils, and 5 blue pencils.”
The problem isn’t limited to race or social class:
Thirty-four percent of eighth-grade boys tested Below Basic in reading, as did one in every five white students and 40 percent of black students. The low levels of literacy also aren’t confined to the Peach State: Twenty-six percent of America’s eighth-graders and one in three fourth-graders are functionally illiterate.
Poor students fare worse than their more financially-comfortable classmates. But the problem extends beyond poverty:
Forty-nine of poor students read Below Basic proficiency while a (less-abysmal) 21 percent of wealthier students also have poor reading comprehension skills.
Biddle also address the long-recognized problem of over-identification of special education students. Many of these kids just can’t read, or don’t speak English– or are male:
Poor reading also partly explains the 63-percent increase in the nation’s special education population (now 13 percent of the nation’s public school enrollment) between 1976 and 2006. Among the largest categories of special ed students include developmental delay — which can just as often mean that the child wasn’t taught to read at home, dyslexic as it may mean that a child suffers from cognitive damage — or emotional disturbance (which can also be caused by the natural rebelliousness arising from frustration over poor reading skills). Reid Lyon, an education official under George W. Bush, determined in 1997 that most black boys landed in special education because they struggled in reading.
And Biddle links this to the decreasing percentage of men on campus:
But concerns about reading have become especially acute because of one of the most-troubling trends in higher education: The dearth of young men on campus. Between 1995-1996 and 2007-2008, the percentage of men on college campuses declined from 48 percent to 43 percent, according to the American Council on Education; there are now 1.39 women for every male on campus.
So, what to do? And who should do it?
Biddle argues that teacher preparation programs don’t do a good enough job of teaching teachers how to teach reading.
He also describes a federal role, but doesn’t hold out much hope, based on past experience:
The latest concerns over literacy have been, in part, spurred on by the Obama administration, which unveiled a project called Reading for Understanding Research Initiative to help improve literacy. Under the program, the U.S. Department of Education is awarding $100 million in grants to six groups of researchers (including those from the Educational Testing Service, the administrator of the SAT college entrance exam) to conduct research on how teachers can improve classroom reading instruction. This, in turn, marks the latest of several efforts (almost all ill-fated) by federal officials to improve how reading is taught in America’s schools.
Reading should begin at home. But the parents of struggling readers are often poor readers or nonreaders themselves:
CERTAINLY READING PROBLEMS CAN [sic] begin at home. Families at all income levels who spend less time reading and engaging in conversation with their children — especially those from impoverished households whose parents tend to be poor readers themselves — will produce children with low reading skills.
Even then, Biddle says, interaction alone isn’t enough:
But it’s not all about income or interaction. Forty percent of all kindergarten students can only learn to read if they are specifically taught syllables, words, letter sounds and spelling. Boys, in particular, struggle because the area of their brains in which language and literacy is developed lags behind that of their female schoolmates.
Bilddle’s final suggestion — that parents buy copies of Hooked on Phonics and organize community reading groups– is a nice example of parents taking things into their own hands. But his own essay argues that this isn’t a satisfactory solution.
H/T: Why Boys Fail
