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

[Shanahan, Timothy E]

Tom—

One theory for that is that, as the amount of testing has increased, adolescents have become selective as to which tests they will make an effort on. Something like NAEP, which “doesn’t count for anything” is a low priority for high school kids – who are either turned off altogether by tests or who are focused on ACTs, SATs, and the like which can make a difference in their lives. Folks who have examined the student responses on the high school test tell me that there definitely are more “no responses” and “obviously random responses” on the tests than was true in the past. I don’t have any idea what percentage of the shortfall this pattern may explain, but it is likely that it is part of the problem.

tim

Timothy Shanahan.
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
University of Illinois at Chicago
shanahan at uic.edu

60 E Monroe St., #6001
Chicago, IL 60603-2760
(312) 933-2835
www.shanahanonliteracy.com<http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com>




From: reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk <reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> on behalf of Thomas Sticht <tgsticht at gmail.com>
Date: Saturday, November 20, 2021 at 8:50 AM
To: reading hall of fame <Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
Subject: [Reading-hall-of-fame] Toward Improving 17 Year Olds Reading
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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