[Reading-hall-of-fame] Toward Improving Reading by Age 17

[Thomas Sticht]

11/18/2021

Can We Improve Reading By Age 17?

Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Literacy (Ret.)

In 1984, following a six year gestation period, the first Handbook of
Reading Research appeared.  Edited by P. David Pearson and others and
printed by Longman’s the 891 page tome came in the wake of what Preface
writer Robert Dykstra estimated as some 1000 pieces of published reading
research arriving each year.

That same year of 1984, the National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP) reported that the average reading score for 17 year old's was 289,
up four points from when the first NAEP score of 285 was recorded for 17
year old's 13 years earlier 1n 1971.

In 1991, the second Handbook of Reading Research, Vol. 2, now at over 1100
pages, was published by Longman’s with Rebecca Barr and others as editors.
This time the preface observed that, “Reading research, we found, moves at
such a frenetic pace that between the moments  of conceptualization and
publication, particular fields of inquiry had risen to a level which
justified a separate chapter. …There are fields that did not seem
appropriate as separate chapters then, but they do now.”

In 1992, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reported
that the average reading score for 17 year old's was 290, up five points
from when the first NAEP score of 285 was recorded for this age group 21
years earlier in 1971.

In 2000, the third Handbook of Reading Research, Vol. 3, with some 1024
pages, was published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates with Michael Kamil and
others as editors. The Preface notes that this third volume has two major
themes: (1) broadening the definition of reading, and (2) broadening the
reading research agenda.

Just a year earlier, in 1999, the National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP) reported that the average reading score for 17 year old's
was 288, down two points from 1992 but still up three points from when the
first NAEP score of 285 was reported for 17 year old's in 1971.

In 2010, the fourth Handbook of Reading Research, Vol.4, with some 800
pages, was published by Routledge with Michael Kamil and others as editors.
The Preface discusses efforts by the federal government to try to improve
instruction in reading and reports,  “The National Reading Panel (NRP)
reported that there were over 100,000 research studies produced between
1966 and 2000, with some 15,000 prior to that time. These numbers
illustrate the exponential growth in the research base stimulated by both
research funding and urgent concern for improving reading instruction.”

 In 2012, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reported
that the average reading score for 17 year old's was 287, down one point
from 1999 but still up two points from when the first NAEP score of 285 was
recorded for this age group 41 years earlier in 1971.

In 2019, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reported
that the average reading score for 17 year old's was back down to 285, the
same as it was when the first NAEP test results were recorded for this age
group 48 years earlier in 1971. The Nations Report Card in Reading for 2019
reported, “The average reading score for twelfth-grade students was lower
in 2019 compared to the last assessment in 2015. The nearly 30-year trend
line shows that the 2019 average reading score for twelfth-graders was
lower than it was approximately a decade ago in 2009, not significantly
different from 2002, and lower than the first assessment year in 1992.”
                             (
https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/reading/2019/g12/).

 In 2020, the fifth Handbook of Reading Research, Vol. 5, with 540 pages,
was published by Routledge with Elizabeth Birr Moje
<https://www.routledge.com/search?author=Elizabeth%20Birr%20Moje> and
others as editors. The Preface discusses gaps between what researchers do
and know and what practitioners (e.g., teachers, administrators)  need to
know and do and asks, “Why do the findings of research so rarely find their
way into practice in any sustained or scaled way?”

This is a good, if somewhat belated, question given the over 115,000 and
more research studies before 2000 and hundreds if not thousands of research
studies since 2000, five volumes of Handbooks of Reading Research, a
National Reading Panel report, federal investments of hundreds of millions
of dollars in research and guidance in reading instructional practices, and
decades of NAEP testing showing some modest gains in 4th and 8th grade
reading scores but which seemingly disappear and result in an essentially
flat line in reading performance of 17 year old's over the last half
century.

If the NAEP assessments are valid indicators of how well these 17 year old,
nearing adulthood teens can read, and if there has not been any improvement
in their average reading abilities in half a century, given the tremendous
amounts of money that has been spent on trying to improve the teaching and
learning of reading, we need to know why. The present revival of the
so-called “reading wars” and “science of reading” indicates that issues
surrounding the teaching and learning of reading are still with us, and
whether the findings of research rarely find their way into practice, or
whether the research findings are not up to the task of improving practice
is yet to be discovered.

Resources:

Handbook of Reading Research, Vol. 5
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Handbook_of_Reading_Research_Volume_V/CgPpDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

Reading Wars:
https://hechingerreport.org/four-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-reading-wars/



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