by Chad AldermanThe 74
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Reading achievements are dumped. Unlike math, where kids read scores, they seem to be making at least some signs of progress continue Their long-term slide.
Policymakers in Washington are beginning to pay attention. Last year Education Secretary Linda McMahon Officially Named “evidence-based literacy” as his No. 1 academic priority. And this month the House Appropriation Committee was held the hearing on The science of reading.
So what role should the federal government play in policy reading?
Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as stealing the playbook from the best-performing state. so called “South Wave“The states of Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana have seen the largest gains in recent years, and many states have tried to copy with their own science reading bills — from various degrees success
The federal government too beautiful spotted A record of large investments in reading that do not lead to improved results. This is at least in part because the principle of reading is complicated by all the possible reasons a child may or may not understand the words on the page.
But that doesn’t mean federal leaders are helpless. They just need to find the right lever. Here are five possible ideas:
1. Create a new National Reading Panel
In 1997, Congress “convened a panel of experts to assess the state of research-based knowledge on the effectiveness of various methods of teaching children to read.” After reviewing thousands of research articles, the group focused on five critical components of reading instruction — phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
The document that came out of that work National Reading Panelhas become a basic text for the field. But it’s decades old now, and researchers know a lot more than they do today. An update and a new consensus document from a respected body of experts would be useful
2. Expand National Assessment of Educational Progress
NAEP tests have been helpful in documenting the extent of students’ challenges, but they don’t say much about the underlying causes of why children have such reading comprehension problems.
For example, on 2024 exam46% of fourth graders did not correctly understand the meaning of the word “conform” in a passage from the book The story of Despereaux By Kate DiCamillo. Is it because they didn’t understand the question, didn’t know the meaning of the word “imitation” or were confused in some other way?
Reading researchers such as Hugh Cates have highlighted that alarm Most reading comprehension tests are ill-equipped to identify the root cause of a student’s literacy errors. NAEP can lead here by introducing other types of assessments that seek to unpack the root causes of reading struggles and how they may differ across age groups.
For example, young students can get one Phonics test As England conducts its 6-year-olds. Older students may benefit from an age-appropriate version of it, as researchers have found that even middle and high school students can struggle with complex words.
3. Give states flexibility in English language arts assessment
Based on the points above, the federal government currently requires states to administer their own reading or language arts assessments in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school. At this point, states have interpreted all the requirements as meaning they must take a generic reading comprehension test.
But states can be given flexibility to interpret it differently. Educators can gain better insight into students’ reading challenges if they are tested on discrete skills such as decoding, fluency, and vocabulary, and comprehension questions are left to specific content areas such as social studies and science. Louisiana tried There was something like this a few years ago, but the feds may give states more flexibility to pursue this line of inquiry.
4. Stresses accountability
Congressional leaders probably don’t have much appetite for a rewrite Every student acts to succeedIt requires states to draft student achievement goals and plans to hold schools accountable But those original state plans were written nearly a decade ago, and things have changed (for the worse) since then. The Department of Education can’t force states to revisit their plans if they don’t want to, but it could signal that it would be open to letting states revise in light of the decline of the past decade, especially in The lowest performing students.
5. Empower parents with information
Despite their best intentions, schools are not good at helping students who fall behind in reading According to Latest information From Amplify’s DIBELS early literacy screener, only 49% of students who fall far behind in reading in kindergarten are on track by the end of third grade. And every year the odds get worse for schools to wait. Last year, among third-graders who were far behind at the start of the term, only 5% caught up by the end of the year.
thank you Another federal lawParents already have access to their child’s education records, but only if they request them. To bring greater urgency to this issue, Congress could require schools to inform parents when their children are falling behind in reading and work with families to develop specific improvement plans.
If reading scores are a crisis, policymakers should act accordingly. But they also need to be realistic in accepting that they can only do so much and that part of the decline in performance can be traced back to not having children. Reading for pleasure Every time they used — and no becomes an adult
So one way to improve literacy scores is to talk to educators at all levels about the importance of reading. People who read a lot know more about the world and people who know more about the world tend to be successful in many areas of life. It’s not exactly policy change, but leadership knowledge — and reading — can shape behavior to make it cool again.
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This is the story is produced by 74A nonprofit, independent news organization focused on education in America.
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