RSS
Home
Adolescent literacy: shocking U.S. statistics reflect need for education reform
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Adolescent Literacy Reform in America has been undergoing great change with local, state, and national support, especially since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) produced widely publicized reports of low reading achievement among students in U.S. schools. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) recognizes this issue and explains that part of this problem is due to the idea that, “traditionally, educators have focused on the development of literacy in the early grades, assuming that older students did not need special instruction.” However, this assumption is incorrect because “it has become clear that many middle and high school students are increasingly under-literate, lacking the complex literacy skills they will need to be successful in an information-driven economy,” (NCTE 2). Since the enactment of NCLB and recognition of the achievement test data produced by national and state standardized tests, schools across the nation have been working to boost student achievement rates. A major key to student achievement in all content areas lies in the realm of proficient adolescent literacy skills.
In 2006, NCTE reported that “only 13% of American adults [were] capable of performing complex literacy tasks,” “literacy scores of high school graduates [had] dropped between 1992 and 2003,” “8.7 million secondary school students – that’s one in four – [were] unable to read and comprehend the material in their textbooks,” and that the “2005 ACT College Readiness Benchmark for Reading found that only about half of the students tested were ready for college-level reading, and the 2005 scores were the lowest in a decade,” (4). These are shocking statistics, and NCTE predicts that low literacy rates in the U.S. predict employment woes for U.S. graduates due to the fact that modern employers are looking for a “highly literate pool of job applicants” and may turn to sources outside the U.S. if American graduates do not meet their qualifications. According to NCTE, “The U.S. economy depends upon developing new generations of workers who are confident and competent practitioners of complex and varied forms of literacy,” (4).
Adolescent literacy is important and comprises more than just reading and writing. Additionally, it is more than a basic set of skills learned in elementary school. It must be developed. NCTE defines adolescent literacy, stating:
“It involves purposeful social and cognitive processes. It helps individuals discover ideas and make meaning. It enables functions such as analysis, synthesis, organization, and evaluation. It fosters the expression of ideas and opinions and extends to understanding how texts are created and how meanings are conveyed by various media, brought together in productive ways.” (5)
To address needs of adolescent literacy, teachers of all content areas should provide content-specific literacy support for students. Additionally, schools should allocate specific classes for literacy needs of students who need developmental skills support. For example, Knox County Schools provide Language ! and READ 180 classes in middle school and high school settings to help students with developmental needs in reading and writing. These courses provide specialized and individualized training, assistance, and practice for students so that they can work at a necessary pace to reach levels of literacy that they need to graduate high school and hopefully to be successful after high school. This adolescent literacy program in the Knox County School System is one strategy that the system is implementing as part of its goals for Project Grad and the American Diploma Project to promote high graduation rates for Knox County School students. Many schools across the nation are following suit in this campaign.
For more info: NCTE Principles of Adolescent Literacy Reform: A Policy Research Brief,Scholastic Read 180: America's Premier Reading Intervention Program
National Council of Teachers of English. NCTE Principles of Adolescent Literacy Reform: A Policy Research Brief. April 2006. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/PolicyResearch/AdolLitPrinciples.pdf on 6 July 2009.
Related Articles:
Comments
