It's That Serious

Administrators: "It's That Serious!"

Now that progress is being documented in early grades reading, school communities face a critical challenge that should be dealt with alongside the push to improve reading success in the early grades. You would think that, as administrators, we would figure out ways to make reading a priority in K-12. It does not happen by itself. To put emphasis on just a few grade levels will not do the job. Research continually indicates that small classrooms, more money, better facilities, and so forth, are not the key issues. The key issue here is building and district administrators working together as a team along with the local school board and entire community to make K-12 reading success happen. (Admittedly, this is a challenge in itself.) And of course, this leads to hiring better teachers who know how to teach reading. It means that they have a reading license from an accredited higher education institution and they get the support and continuing professional development that they need from building and district administrators.

In my various job opportunities over the last forty or so years as an administrator in school districts, at the state level, and now at the university level, I have had many opportunities to visit schools throughout Indiana and the United States. I have seen firsthand the critical situation that has developed where schools are not continuing intensive reading opportunities for all students in the middle grades. But as usual, in America, we wait until the situation gets really out of hand; then we “take the fork in the road,” not always knowing which one to take.

Kathleen Manzo writes a startling commentary in a recent Education Week article that relates results of a recent study by a panel of reading researchers. One panelist commented: “This is more than a crisis for high school kids. We almost need a trauma center to take care of this problem; it’s that serious for kids who can’t read . . . . It’s the number-one factor standing in the way of their graduating.”

Here are their suggestions for adolescent reading instruction (I have added my own comments):

Direct, explicit comprehensive instruction. (Assess what is going on in your present reading program. Look at ISTEP scores and your current drop-out rate and determine if those who drop out of school have low scores. You can use this to predict those students who will drop out of high school and then

work at preventing this from happening.)
Effective instructional principles embedded in content. (Hire quality teachers who are trained in reading, and have them work to find out what works in classrooms and share with others).

Motivation and self-directed reading. (Do you provide teachers with materials needed for students at various reading levels? The average middle grades reading class has students reading from a primary to a high school level, and excellent materials are available to meet the needs of each student at his or her own reading level. But it makes sense to con-centrate forces so that expensive but motivating reading materials can be used for class after class. This is similar to science where teachers can use the same equipment rather than to try to have all teachers be responsible for science. A typical middle grades school of 500 students would need one sixth grade reading teacher, one seventh grade reading teacher, and one eighth grade reading teacher. Teachers should also support students’ voluntary reading by reading books that their students read and discussing these books with students. Further, even at the middle school and junior and senior high school levels, teachers and administrators should read to students regularly.)

Text-based collaborative learning. (Do you offer Middle Level Reading courses [IDOE course # 0480-06, 0480-07, and 0480-08] for all students, as well as language arts classes? In order to do so, you must hire licensed reading teachers for these classes. Remember that time spent in teaching reading and time engaged in reading result in higher achievement. The use of various texts and books, as well as graded books and materials that are on the students’ reading levels, should be organized to be used consistently, individually, with students in groups, and across the grade level and subject areas to ensure the use of andpractice of comprehension and vocabulary skills.)

Strategic tutoring. (Provide Title I assistance, require after-school assistance, and offer summer programs.)

Diverse texts. (Access to a wide variety of books and printed materials is the key here. School libraries and public libraries should collaborate with classroom teachers. Provide graded reading materials for those who need them.)

Intensive writing. (Connect writing projects with reading and research projects. Students must be taught how to do this. It does not just happen.)

A technology component. (The Internet, if properly supervised, can be a great asset in skill development as well as in reading for information and developing comprehension and vocabulary.)

Ongoing formative assessment of students. (Teacher-scored tests and district-based criterion-referenced tests for each skill and/or a combination of skills, with at least one assessment per skill or combination of skills used across the grade level for all students, will help not only to see which students need assistance but to look at trends for program improvement.)

Extended time for reading. (Students need to practice their reading, and school libraries with strong collections help students practice their reading. Are you giving your school libraries attention? Do you know the circulation rate per student? The average circulation of books per student should be at least 25 books per year, and circulation goes up when students have access to new books. You should be purchasing at least two books per student per year.)

Professional development. (In the last ten years, fewer staff members have participated in Indiana and national reading activities and other staff development sessions. Building principals and the superintendent need to be more involved in the staff development process and see to it that staff needs are met.)

Ongoing summative assessment of students and programs. (The ISTEP test does not give enough diagnostic information to provide the teacher with assistance as to what help the students actually need. Criterion-referenced-type semester tests, the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, and other similar tests are more revealing.)

Teacher teams. (Teachers need to meet regularly by grade level and across grade levels to share what works in the classroom. It is also important for middle grades teachers to meet periodically with elementary and high school teachers to ensure consistency and prevent gaps in skill knowledge. Teachers can get together in small teams to read and discuss books that they enjoy.)

Leadership. (Be a positive role model, talk about books to staff and students, make reading a part of meeting agendas from the classroom to the board room, have students read to board members at a board meeting, convince the board of the importance of making reading the priority in the school district, visit classes and school libraries, encourage middle grades parents to share books with their children during the summer and encourage use of public libraries, be certain that school Web sites feature reading, teach reading groups/classes on a regular basis, and so forth.)

A comprehensive and coordinated reading program. (K-12 curriculum should be vertically and horizontally articulated and learning projects and activities planned to prevent excessive overlap. Communication among K-12 staff and administrators is essential regarding what is taught, how it is taught, and when and how assessment takes place. Program improvement should involve all K-12 staff, not just middle grades staff.

     Finally, an astute group of prominent reading researchers has said what at least some of us educators have been saying for the past twenty years or more. How are our young people ever going to make it in the real world if they cannot read at an acceptable level? So, we want every child to read by the end of third grade. OK, then what? It is time for entire school communities (not only school staff and parents but business and local organizations too), the State Department of Education, and higher education institutions to work together to focus not only on primary grade-level reading but middle school and high school as well—for all students.



      Indiana now spends $20,000 per prison inmate per year, but only an average of $5,746 is spent per K-12 student (excluding special education). Indiana prisons now provide educational programs for inmates that range from teaching basic reading and math skills to preparing for the test of General Educational Development (GED), training in vocational/technical fields, and offering courses leading to college degrees. The return-to-prison rate in 2003 was 26.9 percent. It is now assumed that with more emphasis on reading and math skills in Indiana middle, junior, and senior high schools as well as in the prison educational programs, the return rate to prison will lessen and inmates will lead more productive lives in the work force when they are released.



      Twenty-six percent of Indiana students who enter the ninth grade do not graduate from high school. How many of these kids are going to end up in prison and thus suck up funds that could be used for schools? It is going to take school and district administrators who are committed and willing to persevere to convince those with the power and money to get this crisis solved and prevent the trauma center syndrome.

It is up to you...

Holland, Earlene L., and Jack W. Humphrey. Study of Reading in Indiana Middle, Junior, and Senior High Schools. Evansville, IN: Middle Grades Reading Network, 2004.

Manzo, Kathleen K. “Reading Researchers Outline Elements Needed to Achieve Adolescent Literacy.” Education Week, Vol. 24, #8, October 20, 2004.

Sergiovanni, Thomas J. Leadership for the Schoolhouse: How Is It Different? Why Is It Important? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.