[Reading-hall-of-fame] Toward Improving 17 Year Olds Reading

[Thomas Sticht]

Greg and all: In some past work on disseminating a new approach to adult
literacy education I noticed what you have indicated  in implementing an
innovation in education: we found that folks with the most belief in the
new approach created programs that were more effective than those who were
least committed but were mandated to make the change anyway.

But the problem of why increases in reading at the 4th and 8th grades do
not show up at the 12th grades in the NAEP assessments is a puzzle to me.
For instance, NAEP data show that in 1992 in the 4th grade, there were 38%
reading in the Below Basic level, 34% in the Basic level, 22% in the
Proficient level, and 6% in the Advanced level. By 2017 the percentage in
the Below Basic level dropped to 32%, Basic dropped to 31% while Proficient
increased to 31%, and Advanced increased to 9%. This suggests that perhaps
research and implementation may have had some positive effects over time.

Similarly, at grade 8, 1992 scores were 31 Below Basic, 40 Basic, 26
Proficient , and Advanced 3%, and by 2017 they were 24 BB, 40B, 32P, and
A4%, showing a drop in Below Basic, no change in Basic, but increases in
the two highest levels of Proficient and Advanced.

This suggests to me that perhaps reading instruction interventions in the
early grades lead to improvements in the 4th grade which may have persisted
into 5th, 6th, 7th and into the 8th grade.

But in the 12th grade, in 1992 the numbers were 20BB, 39B, 36P, and A4% and
in 2015 the numbers were 28BB, 35B, 31P, A6%. So there was in increase in
the Below Basic, a decrease in the Basic and Proficient levels, and a 2
percentage point increase in the Advanced level. The average score in 1992
was 290 and by 2019 it was 285, the same as it was 48 years earlier in
1971. So it seems as if the gains in the 4th and 8th grades did not carry
over into the 12th grades, though perhaps they may have influenced the 2
percentage point gain in Advanced proficiency.

At any rate, the 12th grade, 17 year old average data seem pretty flat for
some 48 years and why reading research has not affected this average as it
seems to have at the 4th and perhaps the 8th grades seems important to
understand. The purpose of the k-12 system is to produce well educated,
literate adults and 17 year olds are about to move into adulthood with the
average literacy skills of 1971 when a greater proportion of better paying
jobs are demanding college levels of literacy.

I have read some news articles claiming some colleges are lowering their
academic skills requirements for entrance and that developmental reading
courses at many colleges are increasing. I don’t know if this is true or
not, but if work is demanding more college level education, and high school
graduates are mostly scoring below Proficient on the NAEP tests, then this
may mean that a large percentage of our population of young adults are
going to find it difficult to get and keep a well-paying, family-supporting
job. This is a real challenge to our educational system and the NAEP data
seem to me to indicate that our R & D efforts so far have not been adequate
in increasing young adult literacy skills. What is to be done?

Tom Sticht
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