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APPENDIX I: WE HAVE A
READING PROBLEM
Note: text in red
and bold reflect my emphasis.
Table of Contents
The
Importance of Reading
Statistics on Reading in
Schools
Statistic
on Adult Reading
The Importance of Early Reading
Success
On
the (Personal) Consequences of Illiteracy (reading specific)
On the (Economic) Consequences of Illiteracy
(reading specific)
On
the Importance of Reading:
From the: American
Federation of Teachers:
Reading: The Cornerstone of Learning
(http://www.aft.org/edissues/rtolltor/firstch.htm)
(this is part of the Office of Special Education Programs of the
U.S. Department of Education "Reading to
Learn/Learning to Read" initiative)
Reading
is a prerequisite for all other learning.
No
other skill taught in school and learned by school children is
more important than reading. It is the gateway to all other
knowledge.
Teaching
students to read by the end of third grade is the single most
important task assigned to elementary schools.
During the first three years of schooling, students "learn
to read." That is, they develop the capacity to interpret
the written symbols for the oral language that they have been
hearing since birth.
Most
Americans know how central reading is to education. According to
a 1994 poll conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates for
the American Federation of Teachers and the Chrysler
Corporation, nearly 70 percent of
teachers believe that reading is the "most important"
skill for children to learn.
From the: American Federation of
Teachers
Reading:
The Cornerstone of Learning (brochure) (http://www.aft.org/edissues/rtolltor/Brochure.htm)
(this is part
of the Office of Special Education Programs of the U.S.
Department of Education "Reading to Learn/Learning to
Read" initiative)
For every child, reading is truly the
gateway to knowledge. In fact, teaching children to
read is probably the single most important task of our
elementary schools.
Because
the stakes are so high, it is
impossible to overstate the importance of appropriate reading
instruction, which combines phonics instruction with
rich literature environments and opportunities to write. Those
who learn to read with ease in the early grades have a
foundation on which to build new knowledge. Those who do not are
doomed to repeated cycles of frustration and failure.
From:
What
Reading Does For The Mind: By Anne E. Cunningham and Keith
E. Stanovich – Published in the American Educator/American
Federation of Teachers Spring/Summer
1998
…reading volume, although clearly a consequence of developed
reading ability, is itself a significant contributor to the
development of other aspects of verbal intelligence.
Statistics
on Reading in Schools:
From
the: National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) -
1998 Reading Report Card (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/main1998/1999500.shtml)
Across
the three grades (4, 8, and 12) in 1998, the percentages of
students performing at or above the Basic level of
reading achievement were 62, 74, and 77 percent; the percentages
who performed at or above the Proficient level were 31,
33, and 40 percent; and the percentages who performed at the
highest achievement level, Advanced, were 7, 3, and 6
percent.
From
the:
National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development – 1997
Synthesis of Research on Reading (http://www.nrrf.org/synthesis_research.htm)
About 40% of the population have reading problems severe enough to
hinder their enjoyment of reading. These problems are generally
not developmental and do not diminish over time, but persist
into adulthood without appropriate intervention.
The
difference between a child who has a learning disability in
reading and a child who is simply a poor reader is only a
difference in the severity of the problem.
Reading
is not developmental or natural, it is learned. Reading disabilities reflect a persistent
deficit, rather than developmental lag in linguistic
(phonological) skills and basic reading skills. Children
who fall behind at an early age (K and Grade 1) fall further and
further behind over time. Adults with reading problems exhibit
the same characteristics that are exhibited by children with
reading problems.
From
the: National
Center for Learning Disabilities: Get Ready to Read: Considerations
for Policymakers (http://209.190.217.242/grtr/policy.cfm)
Reading failure in the United
States has reached epidemic proportions.
Over 40 percent of
fourth grade students performed below basic levels on the
National Assessment
of Educational Progress (NAEP) in both 1994 and 1998. Over 10% of fourth grade children could not even participate in
the NAEP due to severe reading difficulties.
Children who do not
learn to read constitute approximately 17% of the population and
comprise over 50% of the special education population.
Currently 2.8 million students with learning disabilities (primarily
reading disabilities) receive special education services, an
increase of 42% over the last decade.
From the: American
Federation of Teachers:
Reading:
The Cornerstone of Learning (http://www.aft.org/edissues/rtolltor/firstch.htm)
(this is part
of the Office of Special Education Programs of the
U.S. Department of Education "Reading to
Learn/Learning to Read" initiative)
Reading is also a skill that a significant percentage of U.S.
students--including many with college-educated parents--have
difficulty learning. Reading problems are even more widespread
among children of the poor, the uneducated, non-English
speakers, minorities, and inner-city dwellers.
According
to the National Adult Literacy Survey, 42
million adult Americans can't read; 50 million can recognize so
few printed words they are limited to a 4th or 5th grade reading
level; one out of every four teenagers drops out of
high school, and of those who graduate, one out of every four
has the equivalent or less of an eighth grade education.
According
to current estimates, the number of functionally illiterate
adults is increasing by approximately two and one quarter
million persons each year.
From the: Literacy
Volunteers of America, Inc
(http://www.literacyvolunteers.org/)
Between 21 and 23 percent of the adult
population or approximately 44 million people, according to the
National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), scored in Level 1 (see
description below). Another 25-28 percent of the adult
population, or between 45 and 50 million people, scored in Level
2. Literacy experts believe that
adults with skills at Levels 1 and 2 lack a sufficient
foundation of basic skills to function successfully in our
society.
Almost all adults in Level 1 can read a
little but not well enough to fill out an application, read a
food label, or read a simple story to a child. Adults in Level 2
usually can perform more complex tasks such as comparing,
contrasting, or integrating pieces of information but usually
not higher level reading and problem-solving skills.
The
Importance of Early Reading Success:
From:
What
Reading Does For The Mind: By Anne E. Cunningham and Keith
E. Stanovich – Published in the American Educator/American
Federation of Teachers Spring/Summer
1998
(http://www.aft.org/publications/american_educator/spring_sum98/cunningham.pdf
The
term “Matthew effects” is taken from the Biblical passage
that describes a rich-get-richer and poor-get-poorer phenomenon.
Applying this concept to reading, we see that very
early in the reading process poor readers, who experience
greater difficulty in breaking the spelling-to-sound code, begin
to be exposed to much less text than their more skilled peers.
From
the standpoint of a reciprocal model of reading development,
this means that many cognitive
differences observed between readers of differing skill may in
fact be consequences of differential practice that itself
resulted from early differences in the speed of initial reading
acquisition. The increased reading experiences of
children who master the spelling-to-sound code early thus might
have important positive feedback effects that are denied the
slowly progressing reader.
We
addressed the question of whether the speed of initial
reading acquisition in the first grade could predict later
tendencies to engage in reading activities ever after difference
in general cognitive abilities were controlled, as some models
of Matthew effects in educational achievement would predict.
…Thus,
this study showed us that an early start in reading is important
in predicting a lifetime of literacy experience-and that is true
regardless of the level of reading comprehension ability
that the individual eventually attains.
This is a stunning finding because it means that students who get off
to a fast start in reading are more likely to read more over the
years, and, furthermore, this very act of reading can help
children compensate for modest levels of cognitive ability by
building their vocabulary and general knowledge.
… it is difficult to overstate the importance of getting children
off to an early successful start in reading. We must ensure that student’s
decoding and word recognition abilities are progressing solidly.
On the (Personal)
Consequences of Illiteracy (reading specific):
Research
from NICHD's Program in Learning Disabilities Why Children Succeed or
Fail at Reading
(http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/readbro.htm)
The
first casualty is self esteem:
they soon grow ashamed as
they struggle with a skill their classmates master easily. In
the later grades, when children switch from learning to read to
reading to learn, reading-impaired
children are kept from exploring science, history, literature,
mathematics and the wealth of information that is presented in
print.
Even
what, to the rest of us, are everyday conveniences--a road map,
the instructions for a microwave pizza--become daunting tasks
for those with reading difficulties.
Surveys
of adolescents and young adults with criminal records show that
about half have reading difficulties. Similarly, about half of
youths with a history of substance abuse have reading problems.
Even
people with a mild reading impairment do not read for fun. For them, reading requires so much effort that they
have little energy left for understanding what they have just
read.
Contrary
to what many people believe, NICHD research has shown that
reading disability affects boys and girls at roughly the same
rate. Reading disabled boys, however, are more likely to be
referred for treatment, as they are more likely to get the
teacher's attention by misbehaving. Reading disabled girls may
escape the teacher's attention, as they may withdraw into quiet
daydreaming.
From
the: National
Center for Learning Disabilities: Get Ready to Read: Considerations
for Policymakers (http://209.190.217.242/grtr/policy.cfm)
35%
of children with reading disabilities drop out of school, a rate
twice that of their classmates.
50% of juvenile delinquents manifest some kind
of learning disability, primarily in the area of reading.
From the: American Federation of
Teachers:
Reading: The Cornerstone of Learning
(http://www.aft.org/edissues/rtolltor/firstch.htm)
(this is part
of the Office of Special Education Programs of the
U.S. Department of Education "Reading to
Learn/Learning to Read" initiative)
If children do not learn to read efficiently, the path is blocked to
every subject they encounter in their school years.
Students
who do not "learn to read" during the first three
years of school experience find enormous difficulty when they
are subsequently asked to "read to learn”.
In
addition, a strong body of evidence shows that most students who
fall behind in reading skills never catch up with their peers
become fluent readers. They fall
further and further behind in school, become frustrated, and
drop out at much higher rates than their classmates.
They find it difficult to obtain rewarding employment and are
effectively prevented from drawing on the power of education to
improve and enrich their lives. Researchers speak of this
syndrome as the "Matthew Effect" -- the rich get
richer and the poor get poorer.
From the: American
Federation of Teachers
Reading:
The Cornerstone of Learning (brochure)
(http://www.aft.org/edissues/rtolltor/Brochure.htm) (this
is part of the Office of Special Education Programs of the U.S.
Department of Education "Reading to Learn/Learning to
Read" initiative)
If
children do not master these skills in their first three years
of school, they are certain to encounter difficulties throughout
their schooling. And when they leave
school, they enter the working world lacking the skills they
need to find a job, develop financial independence, and take
their places as citizens, parents and workers.
On the (Economic)
Consequences of Illiteracy (reading specific):
The
federal government alone has more than 79
literacy-related programs administered by 14 federal agencies.
The total amount of money being spent on illiteracy by the
federal government can only be guessed at, because there has
never been a complete assessment prepared. A conservative
estimate would place the amount at more than ten
billion dollars each year, and growing steadily.
The
International Reading Association estimates that more than one
thousand research papers are prepared each year on
the subject of literacy, and that is very likely a low figure.
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