Middle and high school teachers say they don鈥檛 have enough time to support the struggling readers in their classes鈥攁nd many say their school leadership isn鈥檛 paying attention to the problem.
The findings, from a survey of more than 500 teachers, reading interventionists, and other educators in grades 6-12, come from the Project for Adolescent Literacy, or PAL, an educator-led group to support older students who are not reading at grade level.
The paint a portrait of a fragmented landscape of reading intervention in secondary schools: Teachers use a wide variety of materials to try to reach struggling students and a similarly diverse collection of methods to assess progress.
They want more training on how to grow these students鈥� reading skills and more time to put those practices into action鈥攂ut more than half say their schools don鈥檛 have policies to support these goals.
鈥淢any respondents indicated that they are sounding the alarms based on their experience day in and day out in the classroom, and yearning for administrator support,鈥� said Rachel Manandhar, an education specialist and literacy interventionist at Berkeley High School in Berkeley, Calif., and a member of the PAL steering committee, in a recent webinar.
Teaching reading skills is usually the province of early elementary educators. By the time students get to middle or high school, the saying goes, they鈥檙e reading to learn鈥攏ot learning to read.
But as the 鈥渟cience of reading鈥� movement has brought to light the gaps in many schools鈥� early reading instruction and aimed to correct those, some upper grades teachers have said that their students are still missing foundational reading abilities.
The recent surge in state legislation on reading, aimed at aligning instruction with evidence-based best practice, almost exclusively targets grades K-5.
Still, in a separate report this year from the RAND Corporation, teachers of grades 3-8 reported that 44 percent of their students always or nearly always faced challenges reading the content in their classes. Almost 1 in 5 middle school teachers reported that they are teaching basic word-reading skills, such as phonics, three or more times a week.
Lack of resources can be a 鈥榥ightmare鈥�
The Project for Adolescent Literacy survey was disseminated through educator networks, via PAL and its host organization, Seek Common Ground. Respondents included teachers, interventionists, and other educators from 44 states, as well as Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa鈥攃ountries that are also facing lively debates about the most effective methods for teaching reading in English. Respondents鈥� demographics were similar to the racial and gender breakdown of U.S. teachers.
Most respondents, 80 percent, said they have found teaching practices or strategies that work with struggling adolescent readers. Seventy-one percent said they teach with materials that will help these readers grow.
Exactly what those materials are, though, varied greatly. Respondents listed 124 different programs or curricula鈥攅xplicit, systematic approaches to teaching reading foundations such as Orton-Gillingham, Wilson Reading System, and Voyager Sopris鈥� Rewards topped the list鈥攁nd 60 different pedagogical approaches.
To measure students鈥� progress, educators most commonly used classroom-based assessments or anecdotal evidence: 46 percent of respondents mentioned these. Thirty-one percent said they used some form of normed assessment, such as NWEA鈥檚 Measure of Academic Progress, a test given periodically throughout the school year.
鈥淭he majority of measurements mentioned are teacher-designed,鈥� said Kate Crist, a literacy consultant and member of PAL鈥檚 steering committee. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e very anecdotal, and they鈥檙e very specific to individual teachers and classrooms.鈥�
In open-ended responses, educators explained the multifaceted challenge of working with older students who still struggle with foundational skills, such as decoding multisyllabic words.
They asked for professional learning that would explain how to differentiate in a classroom where students鈥� reading levels range from 3rd through 12th grade, and materials that could help students practice phonics skills that aren鈥檛 鈥渏uvenile-looking.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 using [speech to print] a lot and I was able to find a program that I鈥檓 able to go through that is working well,鈥� wrote one teacher, in an open-ended response.
鈥淎nd then alongside that, I鈥檓 creating a lot of my own things that are for everything else, because of course it鈥檚 not just about reading the word, it鈥檚 also about understanding the sentence structure, it鈥檚 about reading fluently, it鈥檚 about vocabulary. 鈥� I鈥檓 sort of doing [a] mix of things but I tried to create everything myself last year and it was just a nightmare. I just didn鈥檛 have the time for it.鈥�
Time was the biggest barrier cited by educators in the survey.
鈥淭here are about 40 students per grade who need serious reading intervention,鈥� wrote one respondent. 鈥淚 wish more of my day could be dedicated to 1:1 and small group reading to practice these hard skills.鈥�
Another respondent suggested that their school implement an extra class for struggling students to get additional practice. 鈥淐urrently no such class is offered,鈥� they wrote.
Almost half of respondents鈥�46 percent鈥攄isagreed or strongly disagreed that their school leadership was paying attention to struggling adolescent readers.
鈥淚 am teaching my literacy intervention class on what would be my lunch break,鈥� wrote one respondent. 鈥淚 approached my admin. and asked them if I could teach this class and said I would do it on my lunch break. So that鈥檚 how much support I get from my admin.鈥�
