about a third of the 12th-graders who were tested last year did not have basic reading skills
That’s from the New York Times. The original chart from the NAEP shows you that the above average students are just fine, scoring the same as they did in 1992. It is the bottom half where the problem exists. The 90th and 75th percentile scores are unchanged, but the average is down.
What can we do about this? There are some known, usual answers. People are reading less, but also it is not enough of a priority for educators.
the federal government and many states relaxed policies that were intended to hold schools and teachers accountable for student learning … “There’s a road map out there from states like Louisiana and Tennessee, focused on high-dosage tutoring, high-quality curriculum and clear information for parents on where their kids stand,” said Marc Porter Magee, chief executive of 50CAN.
What else can we do? I say do several small things that compound over time. Most of these involve them doing more than passive reading.
Make them memorise poetry. Children of all backgrounds used to do this, quite as standard. It can be a funny poem, a short poem, a limerick, a rude poem, whatever they want. But it would be an accountability constraint and help with concentration.
Read to the class. Illiterates used to hear the King James Bible and Book of Common Prayer every day in the seventeenth century. I know there are limits on reading out religious texts in schools, but it is easy enough to read them something high quality every day. Dictation also works!
Promote “bad” books. Give them Romantasy, Ayn Rand, trashy SciFi, whatever they want. Let them read Percy Jackson. This is not about literature, this is about getting in enough reading hours to be competent.
Have enforced reading time. Just put them in a room, no phones allowed, and have them read. Peer pressure works. Boredom will get some of them to do some more reading.
Make them write more. I don’t know if school pupils are writing enough, but I am generally a bit shocked at the lack of writing in American colleges. During her debate with Hollis Robbins, Anastasia Berg said her students had to write two essays for her gen ed class. Two in total! That’s a week or two’s worth of work at Oxford. Nothing makes you a better reader like being forced to become a better writer. Output improves input. Let them all blog! Reciting poetry is good for this too.
I would also like to know about the “video literary” of some of these people, which I would bet is much higher than mine.
I know many of you are teachers, what do you suggest?
This is so important. I really think there can be no discussion about the fate of literature or culture or the humanities that doesn't begin with primary education. If you wait to talk about university, it's probably too late! So I'm glad you're posting on this!
I agree with all of your ideas, though I would say that most of them are being done to varying degrees already (with the exception of memorizing poetry--I have no idea if that will support literacy skills but I DO think it's helpful to fostering a love of poetry, which I think is a good thing).
But when you get to the bottom ten percent of students, in particular, you really are talking about social rather than pedagogical problems per se. For example, chronic absenteeism. This has been way up post-covid. A huge proportion of the students in the bottom 10 percent of scores are probably not attending school at all regularly. Then there are English language learners, who now make up 10 percent of students; many schools don't have the resources to devote to them, so they get mainstreamed too soon and don't acquire the necessary skills. There are issues relating to discipline. There are problems that occur as a result of kids moving a lot because of housing instability and falling between the cracks as a result. There are the perverse incentives built into the system in terms of graduation rate. Of course we need to fix all of this! But it is amazingly difficult, and individual teachers or even schools probably can't do it without district and government support.
(These are all problems my husband encountered regularly as an English teacher at a big urban public high school btw.)