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Adolescent Literacy: A New Sense of Urgency
Over the last few decades, local, state, and federal policymakers have made it a high priority — backed up with billions of dollars of spending — to sponsor research into early literacy instruction, translate research findings into programs and classroom materials, and train elementary school teachers in effective ways to teach reading. However, for all their efforts to improve reading instruction in grades K-3, policymakers have only just begun to recognize the urgent need for better literacy instruction in grades 4-12.
Today, very few secondary school students receive the kind of intensive, ongoing literacy instruction they require, either to catch up in the basics or to develop the high-level literacy skills that will enable them to understand their science textbooks, write their history papers, complete their homework assignments, and make the transition to college or career training. Frustrated and discouraged, hundreds of thousands of those students drop out every year. And even among those students who graduate from high school and make plans for college, roughly half — according to recent data (ACT, 2006) — lack the reading skills needed to pass a typical 1st year college course.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Education's National Assessment of Educational Progress (known as NAEP, or "the Nation's Report Card"), fewer than a third of the nation's 8th graders read and write at a proficient level (that is, at a level deemed to be appropriate for their year in school). And for low-income students and students of color, the statistics are even more alarming: just 13% of African-American, 17% of Hispanic, and 15% of low-income 8th graders were found to be proficient in reading.
Since 1971 — when the federal government began tracking student achievement in reading, writing, math, and other subjects — these figures have changed very little. In the last few years, 4th grade reading scores have made some encouraging gains, most likely due to recent efforts and investments in literacy instruction at the elementary level. However, for more than three decades now, the majority of the nation's secondary school students have failed to demonstrate the expected competence in reading and writing, and only a handful of students — 3% of 8th graders, in 2007 — have been found to read at an advanced level.
But while students' literacy skills haven't changed, the same can't be said for the world that waits outside the schoolhouse door.
A generation ago, the economy was a lot more forgiving to young people who couldn't read and write very well, or who left high school without a diploma. Today, it is next to impossible to find a decent entry-level job without at least a two-year college degree. And once they do land a job, workers are finding it increasingly difficult to climb the career ladder unless they have the ability to communicate effectively, both in person and on paper. Even in industries such as manufacturing and transportation, where a strong back used to count for more than a clear memo, employees must be able to read and write with competence.
Moreover, individual workers aren't the only ones struggling to adapt to the growing demand for high-level literacy. According to a major 2007 report from the Educational Testing Service, America's Perfect Storm, current labor market trends, demographics, and student achievement data are combining to create a "perfect storm" that could inflict lasting damage upon the nation's economy and upon its social fabric, as well. Simply put, if the middle and high schools continue to churn out large numbers of students who lack the ability to read critically, write persuasively, and communicate effectively, then the labor market will soon be flooded with young people who have nothing to offer, and who cannot handle the jobs that are available. "[T]here will be tens of millions more adults," the ETS report concludes, "who lack the education and skills they will need to thrive in the new economy," raising the specter of joblessness and despair on a scale not seen since the Great Depression. If that future is to be avoided, the authors argue, the nation's secondary schools will have to begin immediately to help many more students to reach much higher levels of literacy than ever before.
The good news? America's adolescent literacy crisis has finally begun to receive the attention it so urgently deserves. Across the country, momentum is building behind efforts to help all students develop the kinds of advanced literacy skills that the present times demand.
Over the last few years, hundreds of school districts have introduced new programs designed to help struggling adolescent readers catch up in the basics. Numerous professional associations and other national organizations have moved adolescent literacy to the top of the school reform. Many of the nation's top education researchers have launched new studies into topics such as how best to teach reading in the academic content areas, how best to teach writing at the high-school level, and how best to support the literacy development of adolescent English language learners.
Likewise, federal policymakers have begun for the first time to make serious investments in middle and high school literacy instruction — Striving Readers, a federal program supporting several district-wide reform initiatives, was launched in 2004, and in March of 2007, legislation was introduced in the U.S. House and Senate to greatly increase its funding, making it closer in size and scope to the federal Reading First initiative, which has provided more than $5 billion since 2001 to support early literacy instruction in the states.
About the Author
Rafael Heller, Ph.D., is an independent consultant based in Washington, DC. He has worked in both K-12 and higher education for nearly twenty years as a teacher, researcher, writer, and editor. From 2005-2007, he was a Senior Policy Associate at the Alliance for Excellent Education, responsible for directing the Alliance's work related to adolescent literacy
Rafael Heller (2007)
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