For more than two decades, national tests have been informing educators that basic mastery in reading.
An April RAND report underscores the persistence of that issue鈥攊t highlights the sizable percentage of secondary English/language arts teachers who frequently engage their students in activities related to foundational reading skills, including phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, print concepts, and fluency.
By highlighting the uncomfortable reality of teachers engaging adolescents in activities normally associated with much younger students, like decoding words, the RAND report put into perspective the broadscope of the nation鈥檚 literacy crisis.
鈥淲e have been paying a lot of attention to how children in K-3 learn to read,鈥� said Anna Shapiro, lead author on the study. 鈥淭hese findings tell me that secondary teachers are perceiving a big need among their students to go back to fundamentals.鈥�
The study also raises a lot of questions for educators, including:
- How do older students who struggle to read go undetected?
- What is at the root of the reading proficiency problem among older students?
- How can educators support struggling older readers in ways that they鈥檒l be receptive?
Here鈥檚 what literacy experts, researchers, and teachers tell us on these issues.
How struggling older readers slip through the cracks
John Bennetts, a and former elementary school teacher, believes that many struggling older readers have been hiding in plain sight for quite some time.
鈥淢y hunch is that the problem has always been there, we just haven鈥檛 been looking for it in the older grades and not in the right ways,鈥� he said.
Many students who fail to learn the basics of reading become increasingly sophisticated about hiding their struggles, explains Bennetts. They grow their sight vocabulary by memorizing 鈥渉igh-frequency鈥� words. They often avoid reading aloud in class. Some eventually opt out of class, and school, altogether.
A landmark 2011 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that 23 percent of students considered 鈥渓ow, below-basic鈥� readers drop out or fail to finish high school on time, compared to 9 percent of children with basic reading skills.
Decoding struggles often go overlooked
Even when teachers do recognize that these students are somehow lagging behind their classmates, they may not have the time or resources to figure out why. And frequently, teachers attribute the problem to the wrong reason, Bennetts explains.
鈥淭hey [teachers] just say, 鈥楾hey can鈥檛 comprehend it,鈥� and they鈥檙e not looking deeper under the hood,鈥� said Bennetts. 鈥淏ut they鈥檙e starting to think about looking under the hood.鈥�
Rebecca Kockler, executive director of Reading Reimagined, a program that鈥檚 part of education research nonprofit , draws the connection between students with poor decoding skills and poor reading comprehension, a problem she says researchers are discovering is much broader than previously thought.
鈥淲e think about 40 to 50 percent of middle and high school students in America cannot perform this skill at the rate they need in order to be able to access reading comprehension,鈥� said Kockler, the former assistant superintendent of academics in Louisiana鈥檚 education department. 鈥淚f you had asked me when I was in Louisiana how many kids in middle school had decoding issues such that they couldn鈥檛 access comprehension at all, I would have said five to seven percent.鈥�
She points to a landmark 2019 that analyzed more than 30,000 students in 5th through 10th grade and found that those who scored below the 鈥樷�渄ecoding threshold"鈥攎eaning they were unable to decode grade-level text automatically, with accuracy and efficiency鈥攎ade no significant growth in their reading comprehension ability over the next three years.
鈥淭he idea of an incredibly stark decoding threshold, that when kids fall below it they show zero growth in reading comprehension, was pretty astounding,鈥� Kockler said.
Examining the breakdown between decoding simple and more complex words
Decoding starts early, and the majority of early elementary students can effectively decode simple, one-syllable words like 鈥渃at.鈥� Those who can鈥檛 master this task likely make up the estimated five to seven percent of students with dyslexia, explains Kockler.
But, she notes, the letters 鈥渃at鈥� in the middle of 鈥渆ducation鈥� present a very different decoding challenge鈥攐ne that students with a low decoding threshold will often attempt the same way they would with the one-syllable word. But Kockler points out that being able to decode 鈥渃at鈥� does not set a student up to be able to decode 鈥渆ducation.鈥�
The complexity of the English language and the diversity of its linguistic patterns, which change the most with multisyllabic words, add to the decoding challenge and require a lot of practice, which doesn鈥檛 always happen, Kockler explains.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e not doing any practice with multisyllabic word instruction, some kids are naturally going to get it anyway. And some kids will really struggle,鈥� Kockler said. That鈥檚 where the halt in reading growth tends to happen among the struggling readers.
Supporting older students who struggle with reading
The first step to helping older students who are struggling to read is to diagnose the problem correctly, says Kockler, who recommends using an assessment specifically validated for older students, such as Stanford University鈥檚 free tool .
Bennetts reminds teachers to start small. Often, the problems have been building over several years. One idea he calls a 鈥渜uick hit鈥� is to focus, in class as a whole, on breaking down multisyllable vocabulary words like 鈥渃omputation,鈥� and calling on a struggling reader to read the easiest syllable (com), and assigning 鈥渢ion鈥� to a more competent reader. That way it鈥檚 systematic, but not singling out any one student.
鈥淚s it going to make a 7th grader who can鈥檛 decode able to? No, but it鈥檚 a start,鈥� he said.
LaMar Timmons-Long, who teaches 11th and 12th grade English in a public school in New York City, finds ways in group and individual settings to check in with students鈥� reading proficiency. He does read-alouds in class that include all students, which can help him gauge fluency and other foundational reading skills. Because of the inclusive culture he purposefully develops in his classes, he says students generally feel comfortable contributing regardless of their skill level.
He also meets with students individually to review their writing assignments, which gives him the opportunity to support students with reading deficiencies in a more direct and private manner. 鈥淭he moments in class where I can connect with students one-on-one have been really beneficial,鈥� Timmons-Long said.
Bennetts echoes that empathic, one-on-one approach. 鈥淭he kids already know they鈥檙e behind, they know they can鈥檛 read the words. If we say, 鈥榊ou need this because you鈥檙e behind,鈥� that鈥檚 not very inspiring,鈥� Bennetts said.
He prefers to use a more honest and optimistic approach in his one-on-one work with middle and high school students struggling with reading.
鈥淏ecause of their age, I do feel like they鈥檙e capable of having an honest conversation about where they鈥檙e having challenges,鈥� said Bennetts. 鈥淚 tell them: 鈥楬ere鈥檚 how I鈥檓 going to help you. It鈥檚 going to be hard work, but I鈥檓 going to support you.鈥欌��
