A recent opinion piece in the The Hill entitled Literacy is an Economic Growth Engine – Will We Seize It? states that 54% of adult Americans lack the literacy skills needed for jobs that provide an adequate wage for living. The authors argue that improving adult literacy would provide significant improvements to our way of life by helping untold number of low-wage employees improve their ability to provide for a decent living for themselves and their families, fill untold number of job vacancies solving the problems of hundreds of employers, and significantly boosting our economy and global combativeness. In addition, they assert that this challenge cannot be addressed by a few individuals or even a mighty foundation. Rather it will take a broad coalition of employers, corporations, and philanthropists.
I agree that this literacy quest will need to involve a massive coalition of active, hands-on participants to improve adult literacy and therefore improve employment opportunities and grow our economy However, even more critical to solving this issue is ensuring every child in our wonderful country graduates high school college and/or career ready. If this happens then they will have the literacy skills needed for good paying jobs. This provides a long-term solution to the problem. School districts have a role to play in this quest as well.
If our children are reading on grade level when they exit grade 3 and then continue to develop their literacy through the various academic content areas, they will graduate high school ready for college and/or career. Not only will our children be well equipped for the adult world, but we will be saving them and ourselves untold grief and costs since we no longer have a need to invest so heavily in developing the literacy of over half of our adult American citizens.
The fact that we have untold numbers of students in our schools who are reading below level creates the pipeline that leads students to not developing the literacy needed before they graduate high school. This then leads to limited economic opportunities and a loss to our overall economy. Ensuring every child leaves third grade reading on or above grade level and then continues to develop literacy through the various academic content classes is critical to eliminating this problem. Literacy is the foundation of equity in our schools.
As a nation, we have developed federal and state laws and policies that proclaim our expectation that all students become proficient in literacy and mathematics. However, the National Assessment of Educational Progress continues to indicate that more than half of our students have failed to demonstrate proficiency in literacy. As a nation, we continue to fail a large number of children by failing to provide the resources they need to master literacy. Equity in school is providing what each individual child needs in order to master the rigorous content. We say we want equality in outcomes; we want all students to be literate, but then we fail to provide what many of them need.
We must begin by following the science. We have years of research of what works to teach all children to read. However, in many places we continue to use programs that only teach some children to read and set the expectation that there will always be below level readers. The Science of Reading (which includes explicit instruction in all of the competencies needed for reading) has been getting more recognition lately, but it is still not the prevalent way of teaching reading in this country. Many of our beginning teachers have not been prepared by their teacher preparation programs to use the Science of Reading so they teach the way they were taught, be it good or bad. Students are frequently not provided explicit instruction in all the competencies of reading and are placed in various leveled reading groups where many students are assigned to below level reading groups for their entire school career.
The Success for All Foundation is and has been a leader in helping schools learn and use the science of reading along with intensive instructional methods to help all children learn to read on or above grade level. They are no longer alone. More and more curriculum providers are helping schools use instructional strategies and programs that have been research proven over and over to teach all children to read. You can find research on proven reading programs at Evidence for ESSA.
In addition to strong, research proven reading programs, some children will need additional support. They may be disconnected from school or feel unseen, have mental health issues or housing and food security issues, or any number of other issues that create barriers to students learning. If we really want all our children to graduate high school college and/or career ready, we must be willing to put forth the resources needed so that every school, regardless of zip code, becomes a place where all students can learn to the highest levels because their needs are met educationally, socially and emotionally, physically, and mentally. Equity is provided – whatever it takes for each child to master the rigorous content.
This blog is written by Dr. GwenCarol Holmes, a long-time educator and passionate advocate for all students mastering rigorous standards.