From The Hechinger Report:
Before the pandemic, eighth graders’ reading comprehension declined substantially. Since then, scholars have been trying to figure out why their scores dropped so much between 2017 and 2019 on a highly regarded national test known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP.
Researchers at the American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit research organization, are digging into whether kids are reading less — perhaps distracted by their digital devices. The emerging answer is that yes, young teens seem to be reading less and enjoying reading less. But the decline in book reading might not be the main culprit in our national comprehension problem. And separate international studies of 15-year-olds and fourth graders indicate that eighth grade reading habits aren’t telling the whole story.
First, the numbers. In survey questions that accompany the NAEP test, eighth graders reported how much time they spent reading outside of school. The percentage of public school students who said they read 30 minutes or more a day, besides homework, declined by 4 percentage points from 53 percent in 2017 to 49 percent in 2019. These same young teens were also less likely to say they talked about books or went to the library. Positive attitudes about reading fell too. Eighth grade students were less likely to agree that reading was one of their favorite activities or that they enjoyed going to a bookstore.
At first, the declines in reading habits and attitudes seemed to fit together with the decline in reading scores and tell a simple story: those who read more scored higher. But when the researchers broke the data down by state, the neat correlation between reading and comprehension fell apart. There were some states, such as Mississippi, where students read less but scores didn’t drop. And in other states, such as Rhode Island, reading habits were more stable, but scores slid nonetheless.
“It’s perplexing,” said Elena Forzani, an assistant professor of education at Boston University, in reaction to this reading data, which is still unpublished but was presented at two education conferences in April 2021. “We know that reading motivation causes kids to pick up books and read more. And the more and more you read, the better you get at it.”
Forzani, a reading specialist who was not involved in this analysis, wonders if current survey questions are out of step with our digital age and fail to capture all the new kinds of reading that young teens are doing every day. Perhaps reading posts on social media and clicking on article links in Google searches are useful types of reading too. Students might be learning new words and information and thinking critically about texts, boosting their comprehension skills in the same way that old-fashioned book reading does.
“If a kid just wants to sit and watch videos all the time, I wouldn’t want my kids doing that either,” Forzani said. “It’s a passive activity. But if they’re creating their own videos, that’s much more active and requires complex and critical cognitive processes. And I think that’s what matters more.”
Forzani said reading is “hugely important.” Her advice to parents is to allow kids to read whatever they want to, even if it’s “Captain Underpants” and you would rather an older child choose a more challenging book. “It’s always been the case that we want to let kids read whatever motivates them,” Forzani said, “because if they’re not motivated to read, nothing else is going to work.”
Forzani thinks the slide in eighth grade test scores could be the result of the way that schools teach reading to struggling students. “We tend to take those kids and throw lower level instruction at them,” she said. “They get these rote phonics programs. It’s all focused on learning to read. They’re not having complex discussions about a text. At the same time, we’re also taking away science and history instruction where kids can develop knowledge and where they can put comprehension strategies into practice. We’re teaching kids to read in a content and motivational vacuum.”
. . . .
Martin Hooper, a senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research who led the eighth grade reading study, has also been digging into reading habits around the world and he’s found an even earlier decrease in reading and reading attitudes in other countries. Between 2000 and 2018, fewer 15-year-olds reported reading for enjoyment in 31 out of 39 countries and jurisdictions surveyed by the Program in International Student Assessment (PISA), which also released its own report on reading habits in the digital age on May 4, 2021. The U.S. was one of the few exceptions, bucking the disappointing trend here.
Link to the rest at The Hechinger Report
It’s not about reading habits at all. In our local public school system (which is considered one of the best in the state), kids aren’t allowed to read books outside their AR level. Meaning kids can’t read Harry Potter, for example, if their AR score isn’t high enough. Parents often don’t know this is happening because they’ve placed an inordinate amount of trust in what their children’s teachers are doing inside the classroom. They don’t understand how negatively this affects children’s personal reading time.
And of course, we use a rigorous phonics program beginning in kindergarten that, according to the program’s own studies, teaches kids how to “parse” language, but dampens or outright discourages their interest in reading.
Meanwhile, if kids read whatever they want to, for AR points or not, their desire to read would increase substantially, as would their reading ability. But teachers and parents are blind to this reality and continue to cling stubbornly to the notion that kids should only read “age appropriate” and “level appropriate” books. Stupid.
We probably don’t want kids reading above grade level because that would make kids who read below grade feel bad. It would also violate equity goals if equality of opportunity is followed by different outcomes.
Thankfully, Baltimore has solved this problem.
Has the subject matter of the schools’ reading material changed? Are boys given action/adventure or books about the emotional struggles of bisexual teens?
Exactly.
There’s also the matter of family culture and support.
Some families encourage or even force kids to learn. Others plunk them in front of a TV screen and forget about them.
Schools can’t do everything for kids.
Often tbey can’t do anything.
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