Tag Archives: reading proficiency

The Key To “What If” Is “Whatever It Takes”

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What if? We all ponder our “what ifs”, those long shot wishes that it would be great to realize, yet we know that long shots are more wish than possibility. Half of pondering is considering “what it would take” to make our long shot happen. And, as with most ponders, the magnitude of what it would take dissolves the dream.

Still, we ponder, so ponder this. What if each and every child entering fourth grade could read and comprehend printed information written at or above the fourth grade level? What if teachers for fourth grade students could begin instruction in September with curricular materials that were at or more complex than fourth grade? As fourth grade marks a shift from learning to read to reading to learn, what if all children entered fourth grade capable of reading to learn? What if?

But, once again, there is a huge span between reality and the above “what if.” The reading comprehension level of children entering fourth grade typically ranges from late first grade to sixth grade. Children with special education needs, children living in poverty, and children who entered Kindergarten unready for schooling too0 often enter fourth grade with reading comprehension and other academic skills well below grade level. Most of their fourth grade instruction will be designed to get their skills past the second and maybe the third grade level and, even though they are exposed to the fourth grade instruction their at-grade-level peers receive, they are very likely leave fourth grade with academic achievement that will make their unready for fifth grade. For almost half the children in every elementary grade level, this describes their academic experience in grades K-5. And, after direct reading instruction ends with their passage to middle school, these children will struggle to read almost all printed material presented to them in grades 6 through 12.

So, again, consider the “what if” that describes all children as being proficient third grade readers ready and able to comprehend fourth grade printed materials. If the reading proficiencies of all children are at grade level, how much academic growth will these children be able to achieve in fourth grade? A lot! With regular fourth grade instruction and learning support, most children would be able to attain fifth grade with at grade level achievements.

This is sounding good. But, what would it take for this to happen, for all children to be at grade level as they complete their elementary education? A lot?

Stop your pondering here. Stop thinking about what all children at grade level would mean both for students and for teachers. Instead, be real and think about what it means today for learning achievement to be scattered across multiple grade levels when they begin fourth grade. Think about what it means to children who know they are still being taught second and third grade curricula. Think about what it means to children who are at or above grade level who know that their teacher must split instruction many times before she can address their grade level or advanced learning needs. Think about what the spread of achievement means for teachers as they plan for multiple grade levels of learning in their class.

When you add up all of these “think abouts,” you should come to a simple and ompelling conclusion. Whatever it takes to cause the reading proficiency of all children to be at beyond the fourth grade entry level is worth its expense.

All children reading at grade level certainly is more than worth all of the resources – time, money, modified instruction, assisted learning – we now plow into helping children in middle school through high school whose reading and comprehension abilities are significantly below grade level. This is not to say that all that we now do to cause children who are below grade level to learn is not worthwhile– far from it. No one advocates abandoning their learning. But, what if they were not below grade level?

Causing all children to achieve grade level reading comprehension when enter fourth grade is worth whatever it takes. Once we determine the scope and depth of the necessary whatevers, the next question we face is “What are we prepared to do?” Too often we know what to do but lack the conviction to do it because the whatevers seem overwhelmingly economically, politically and pedagogically difficult. The subsequent blogs will discuss “whatever it takes.”

Stop Being Too Little and Too Late

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“Closing the barn door after the horse has bolted,” was a favorite idiom of years gone by to tell someone that they are making a large to do after the fact. Some might have added “Too little, too late!” Each of these accurately expresses the status of the “Closing the Achievement Gap” mandates that are driving our contemporary educational reform initiatives. We need to close the barn door of learning disparities while the horse is still a colt and has not yet thought of bolting.

Any observer of state accountability systems will see that achievement gaps, the disparity between the achievement measures of disaggregated groups of children compared with the achievement of white, mainstream children, are typically treated equally at all grade level intervals. That is, gaps in learning for early elementary children, middle school students and high school students are to receive similar educational emphasis – close all gaps every year. Teacher resources, supports for assisted learning, time and effort are equally distributed across all student groups. This may be an expression of equity but what are we to do when equity is not working?

Data drives most decisions of modern educational policy. The examination of data has many political and business leaders bemoaning that children in the United States are outperformed by their peers on international achievement comparisons. Similar examinations of data inform us about the disparities that exist between groups of children in our schools. In fact, the gaps in learning among disaggregated groups of children in the US schools is greater than the gap between US children and their international peers. We know this to be true.

Data also tell us that educational achievement at an early age is more potent in enhancing later school and life successes than educational achievement at an older age. Children who are at or above grade level in their academic learning in elementary school and continue on this path build content and skill strengths that can compound each successive year. In contrast, children whose early school achievement is consistently below grade level do not build similar strengths even if they achieve grade level successes in secondary school. Or, in reverse, the lack of educational achievement at an early age has profound and detrimental consequences at later ages. We know this to be true.

Specifically, this is what we know. “Reading proficiently by the end of third grade (as measured by NAEP at the beginning of fourth grade) can be a make-or-break benchmark in a child’s educational development. Up until the end of third grade, most children are learning to read. Beginning in fourth grade, however, they are reading to learn, using their skills to gain more information in subjects such as math and science, to solve problems, to think critically about what they are learning, and to act upon and share that knowledge in the world around them. Up to half of the printed fourth-grade curriculum is incomprehensible to students who read below that grade level, according to the Children’s Reading Foundation. And three quarters of students who are poor readers in third grade will remain poor readers in high school, according to researchers at Yale University. Not surprisingly, students with relatively low literacy achievement tend to have more behavioral and social problems in subsequent grades and higher rates of retention in grade. The National Research Council asserts that “academic success, as defined by high school graduation, can be predicted with reasonable accuracy by knowing someone’s reading skill at the end of third grade. A person who is not at least a modestly skilled reader by that time is unlikely to graduate from high school.”

Stop and consider. “Up to half of the printed fourth-grade curriculum is incomprehensible to students who read below that grade level.” It is easy to read and gloss over this statement, but we must not. If almost half of important written information is incomprehensible in fourth grade, how much is incomprehensible in fifth grade, or eighth grade of 10th grade? The incomprehensibility grows, especially as the reliance on background academic knowledge becomes greater and greater in the subject area texts that essential to high school subjects.

For these reasons, the academic achievement gaps developing in the primary grades must receive a greater portion of our intervention resources. Given that educational resources are finite, this will mean that a seeming disproportionate amount of resources will be focused on the primary grades. Inequity? No. Strategic and necessary. Yes! All children must be academically successful when they begin fourth grade. It is imperative that greater educational resources be targeted on each underachiever in 4-K and the primary grades.

And, there are more reasons that we know to be true which justify such an emphasis on primary grade interventions. “Some children don’t develop the social and emotional skills needed to function in a structured environment like school before they reach school age. These capacities, which are just as essential as cognitive skills for school success, include: the ability to manage emotions, follow directions, take turns, share, take responsibility, work independently and cooperatively, and stick with a task; motivation; enjoyment of learning; and the executive function – an ability to control oneself, make plans, learn rules, act appropriately, and think in abstract terms.

“The readiness gap becomes an achievement gap when children enter school, and this gap persists over the students’ school experience. McKinsey & Company found a gap of two to three years of learning between low-income and higher-income students in its analysis of average NAEP scores (10 points on the NAEP test are roughly equal to one year of education). For many low-income students, the achievement gap is exacerbated by low-performing schools; chronic absence; summer reading loss; and stressors like childhood hunger and food insecurity, housing insecurity, and family mobility.”

http://www.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/AECF-Early_Warning_Full_Report-2010.pdf

Again, stop and consider. School readiness is one of the greatest determinants of early learning success. Children who demonstrate social and behavioral deficits in Kindergarten and the primary grades have great difficulty in achieving academic successes. Their social and emotional problems beget learning problems which beget further social and emotional instability. It is essential that primary teachers and staff have the time and resources to extinguish problematic behaviors and build productive behaviors. This cannot happen in the flow of a normal school day. Over-staffing and over-resourcing is necessary to pair and commit teachers with students who demonstrate these learning needs. Again, this is not inequity, but strategic and necessary intervention.

Additionally, although some causes for learning deficits appear to be extra-school, they still must be addressed by school interventions. Needs for nutrition and school supplies are relatively easy to satisfy. Transportation needs also should be easy to satisfy, as is the provision of enrichment materials for children to have at home. Supporting the parents of children with early deficits is more difficult, but not impossible. The key to these issues is the willingness of those responsible for closing achievement gaps to overload their resources toward all of the learning needs of primary grade children.

We must stop trying to put horses that have bolted from the barn back into their barn stalls year after year. It has and still proves to be a “too little, too late” remedy to problems that seem insurmountable given our record for closing achievement gaps. Instead, teach the horses while they are colts. Educational leaderships, by design, must become pre-emptive instead of ineffectively responsive in ensuring that all children are prepared to learn (reading skills, social and emotional readiness) as they enter fourth grade.

Reading Proficiency Is A Must, Not A Matter of Priorities And Choices

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Priorities and choices. Many things in life involve assessing priorities and making choices. On a personal level, most choices involve one person or small groups of people. The scope of options and the effect of choices are limited. On a governmental scale, the scope of options widens and the effect of a choice can be huge. This is one of the differences between you and your state governor. Most of a governor’s choices are political in nature. Many are economic. Sadly, too few are educational. This article will examine what we know about success in school and career, one of the early indicators of academic success, and what leadership is doing to maximize every child’s success on that early indicator.

A recent headline read “Early Grades Crucial in Path to Reading Proficiency.” The authors of the Quality Counts 2015 article in Education Week created a very persuasive article regarding the importance of every child achieving a 3rd grade reading proficiency prior to fourth grade. This is an informative piece that every parent and early child educator should read. Interestingly, the National Governor’s Association is very informed regarding the educational advantages that children accrue if their reading proficiency is at grade level prior to fourth grade. They also are informed regarding the educational programs that are most likely to assist every child in their state’s schools to achieve this watermark.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/08/early-grades-crucial-in-path-to-reading.html

I can hear Yoda of Star Wars fame describing this situation. “If know you, do you not why?” Every choice is a matter of priorities. While 3rd grade reading proficiency should be a governor’s priority, politics and economics consistently appear to be higher priorities.

These are two bits of information that governors know regarding third grade reading proficiency. And, this information is very important if education is a governor’s priority. Governors love to tout graduation rates and ACT scores and improved academic achievement. But, if the governor is not talking about ALL children reading at grade level when they enter fourth grade, education for all children is not the governor’s priority.

The first bit is the importance of a third grade reading proficiency. “Children who are not reading proficiently by 3rd grade are widely seen as being in academic crisis. Educators are increasingly looking for actions they can take in the younger grades—even as early as preschool—to head off failure later in a child’s school career.

The stakes are clear: Studies have shown that absent effective intervention, children who read significantly below grade level by 3rd grade continue to struggle in school and eventually face a much higher likelihood of dropping out altogether.

By the time students are ready to move on to 4th grade, they are expected to have the reading skills they need to absorb information independently. A commonly used shorthand is that children will be “reading to learn,” instead of “learning to read,” though reading researchers note that children are reading for information early on in their school careers.”

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/08/early-grades-crucial-in-path-to-reading.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1

The second bit is the crucial role that governors can play in assisting young children to become proficient readers. “The time is now to redesign this country’s approach to language and literacy instruction, and governors who choose to can lead the charge. The purpose of this guide is to examine the gap between research and policy and to describe the five policy actions that governors and other state policymakers can take to ensure that all children are reading on grade level by the end of third grade.

Governors can increase the number of children proficient in reading by third grade in their states by ensuring that their states’ efforts in early childhood and elementary education take account of three major and widely embraced results of educational research.

Starting at kindergarten is too late. Language and literacy development begins at birth, and gaps in achievement appear well before kindergarten entry. Effective early care and education programs for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers can help close the gap.

Reading proficiency requires three sets of interrelated skills and knowledge that are taught and cultivated over time. Many state policies and practices emphasize mechanics of reading (for example, matching letters to sounds and sounding out whole words) at the expense of other skills. However, proficiency requires more, notably development of oral language skills, an expanding vocabulary, the ability to comprehend what is read, and a rich understanding of real-world concepts and subject matter.

Parents, primary caregivers, and teachers have the most influence on children’s language and literacy development. An effective strategy to increase reading proficiency requires evidence-based policies that support those adults who are in the best position to support children’s learning and development.”

http://www.nga.org/files/live/sites/NGA/files/pdf/2013/1310NGAEarlyLiteracyReportWeb.pdf

The five policy actions identified by the National Governors Association are these.

 1. Adopt comprehensive language and literacy standards and curricula for early care and education programs and kindergarten through third grade (K-3).

2. Expand access to high-quality child care, pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten.

3. Engage and support parents as partners in early language and literacy development.

4. Equip professional providing care and education with the skills and knowledge to support early language and literacy development.

5. Develop mechanisms to promote continuous improvement and accountability.

The recommendations are taken from “A Governor’s Guide to Early Literacy: Getting Students Reading By Third Grade.” This is a publication of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, “the only research and development firm that directly serves the nation’s governors and their key policy staff.

Knowing what should be done and doing what should be done often are worlds apart. Instruction and support in reading, language development, and literacy skills are essential for academic success in school and later life. By the time a child completes third grade, typically at age eight or nine, each child should have benefitted from several years of reading instruction in school and several years of language and literacy development at home. The quantity and quality of reading instruction and language and literacy development are significant variables of interest in considering whether all children will become proficient readers by fourth grade.

School Instruction

At a minimum, one would think that every child receives at least four years of reading and language instruction in school by the completion of third grade. That would be Kindergarten, first grade, second grade and third grade. In fact, some children receive five years of school-based reading instruction and others receive three. Reading proficiency by third grade may be a matter of where a child lives rather the child’s capacity to learn to read.

In 2015 we consider Kindergarten to be a usual and standardized beginning for every child’s elementary education. Not so. Kindergarten instruction remains the option of a state and a local school district as to whether Kindergarten is available to children and if attendance in Kindergarten is compulsory. Forty-three (43) states require school districts to offer kindergarten programs for local enrollment. Seven (7) states still do not require their schools to even offer kindergarten programming.

http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/78/60/7860.pdf

However, being in a state that requires schools to offer kindergarten does not mean that all children enroll in kindergarten and receive a first of four years of reading instruction. Thirty-five (35) states are wafflers; they require schools to offer kindergarten but enrollment is not compulsory. Only fifteen states require children to attend Kindergarten. Even if required, only two states require children to attend a full-day program; thirteen (13) states require children to attend half-day or alternating day programs.

http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/78/60/7860.pdf

Some states get close to compulsory Kindergarten attendance, but maintain parental discretions. Beginning with the 2011-12 school year, Wisconsin required a child to complete five-year old Kindergarten as a pre-requisite to being admitted to first grade. The statute does not indicate the provider, the learner outcomes, or whether the program is half-day or full-day. In Wisconsin, almost any five-year old education will suffice as a requirement of admission to first grade.

http://ec.dpi.wi.gov/ec_ec-entr-admiss

Parents control Kindergarten enrollment for the majority of five-year old children. If a family lives in one of the 35 states where Kindergarten enrollment is not compulsory, parental choice comes into play. Many parents do not believe their child is ready for school. Some parents want to delay school entry so that their child will have the advantage of one more year’s development. Some parents have aspirations for their child’s athletic potential and delay school entry for a “red shirt” year. Other parents suffer from separation anxiety and keep their children at home. And, some parents believe that school is not a physically or emotionally safe place for their child and elect home schooling to being their child’s education.

The upshot is that in any national cadre of children who are age-ready for Kindergarten, many do not attend. First grade is the first common educational experience for all children.

Four-year old Kindergarten

Four-year old Kindergarten is relatively new to public education where K-12 is the traditional grade span. Historically, pre-school was day care and most day care operations were provided by churches or by co-operatives of parents. However, whether it is pre-school or four-year old Kindergarten, children who participate in reading and language development have an advantage over children who do not.

“The Brookings Institution research found that, ‘Children who attend some form of preschool program at age four are nine percentage points more likely to be school-ready than other children.’ This outcome is largely due to ‘early math and reading skills and, to a lesser extent, positive learning-related behaviors acquired in preschool.’ This study simulated the effects on school readiness of three interventions, ‘preschool, smoking cessation programs for pregnant women and nurse-home visiting programs for new mothers — and found that preschool programs ‘offer the most promise for increasing children’s school readiness.’”

http://eyeonearlyeducation.com/2013/07/09/new-research-confirms-third-grade-readings-importance/

According to the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), for the 2012-2013 school year, pre-K enrollment was 28 percent at age 4 as the total across all states decreased by nearly 9,000 children. Let’s say that differently. Sixty-two percent of four-year olds are not enrolled in pre-K schooling. This, when we know that pre-Kindergarten instruction in reading and language development can be essential for children if they are to achieve reading proficiency by fourth grade.

http://www.data-first.org/data/what-percent-of-our-children-are-enrolled-in-prekindergarten/

Many states leave four-year old Kindergarten and other pre-K programming to the discretion of local school districts. A local district’s first look at pre-K programming may be with Head Start, a federally-funded program begun in 1965 to meet the needs of families with economic and parent-support needs. Head Start serves more than a million children each year and remains a major player in urban/suburban communities with a density of population, but has difficulty serving rural families that are remote from its service centers..

In 2013-14, 106 of 386 school districts in Wisconsin offer 4-year old Kindergarten. Wisconsin encourages community-based pre-school calling it a “school-community interface.” The Department of Public Instruction provides Four-Year-Old Kindergarten Grants with funding of up to $3,000 for each pupil in the first year and $1,500 in the second year. In 2013 three districts were approved for 2014 funding. Funding for four-year old Kindergarten in Wisconsin, as in most states, is a part of the state’s annual budgeting process and if education is not a priority funding dies with budget reductions. The three districts approved for funding in 2014 will receive $200 per pupil.

http://ec.dpi.wi.gov/ec_ec4yr-old-kind-grants

The dilemma regarding four-year old Kindergarten and the goal of each child achieving a third-grade reading proficiency by the start of fourth grade is that school law and traditions make first grade the real first year of school for most children. As a non-mandated program, 4-K funding is a very low legislative priority. If a state requires schools to offer four-year old Kindergarten, the state would be compelled to provide a new level of funding to school districts. That new level increases greatly if a state included 4-K as compulsory school attendance. In states controlled by conservative, cost-cutting legislators, the growth of 4K programs is at a standstill.

Politics and Educational Goals

Reporters Perez-Pena and Rich have captured the relationship between knowing what to do and doing what should be done in their New York Times article, “Preschool Push Moving Ahead in Many States. “With a growing body of research pointing to the importance of early child development and its effect on later academic and social progress, enrollment in state-funded preschool has more than doubled since 2002, to about 30 percent of all 4-year-olds nationwide.

For generations, it was largely Democrats who called for government-funded preschool — and then only in fits and starts — and that remains the case in Congress, where proposals have yet to gain traction among Republicans. But outside Washington, it has become a bipartisan cause, uniting business groups and labor unions, with Republican governors like Rick Snyder of Michigan and Robert Bentley of Alabama pushing some of the biggest increases in preschool spending.

‘It’s a human need and an economic need,’ said Mr. Snyder, who raised preschool spending by $65 million last year and will propose a similar increase this year, doubling the size of the state program in two years. He called the spending an investment whose dividends ‘will show up for decades to come.’

Analysts also see politics behind the shift at the state level, with preschool appealing particularly to women and minorities, groups whose votes are needed by Republicans.

Few government programs have broader appeal than preschool. A telephone poll conducted in July for the First Five Years Fund, a nonprofit group that advocates early education programs, found that 60 percent of registered Republicans and 84 percent of Democrats supported a proposal to expand public preschool by raising the federal tobacco tax.

Not that any of these factors will necessarily change things in Congress, where Republicans have steadfastly opposed the proposal by Mr. Obama, who has called for a $75 billion federal investment in preschool over 10 years, paid for with an increased tobacco tax.

Preschool advocates say that Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee is one of the Republicans most receptive to their arguments, but he rejected the president’s plan as a top-down mandate from Washington. ‘Early childhood education is important and we should try to make it available to the largest number of children possible,’ he said in an email. ‘But most of that should be done by local communities and state governments.’

Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, has introduced a prekindergarten bill that would cost $34 billion over five years. In a nod to conservative resistance to a tobacco tax, Mr. Harkin has said he is open to any funding mechanism, but he has found no Republican co-sponsors.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/us/push-for-preschool-becomes-a-bipartisan-cause-outside-washington.html?_r=0

At the national level, if President Obama supports federal investment to make pre-school a universal educational program for all children in the United States, the Republican Congress will be opposed. Federal investment is dead in the water because it is a partisan issue. If the federal government offers states incentives to grow pre-school programs in their states, it will be attacked by state Republicans as a “top down” program or an attempt to “nationalize public education.” The majority of statehouses are controlled by Republicans and they will treat these incentives as they treated incentives to expand Medicaid – with a partisan refusal.

At the state level, most annual budgets are either deficits or barely balanced. In Republican statehouses, education is traditionally supported by Democrats and reductions in educational spending is traditionally supported by Republicans. It is very unlikely that these statehouses will voluntarily increase state spending to increase pre-school programs, especially as pre-school is perceived in their eyes as an unnecessary and costly addition to the burden of K-12 spending.

So what are we to do?

The research tells us that children who have access to four-year old Kindergarten and five-year old Kindergarten are more likely to achieve third grade reading proficiency prior to fourth grade than children who do not have access to one or both. Leadership by the governor and state legislators is essential if every child is to become a proficient reader. Use the power of your vote to influence their political and economic decisions. Use the power of your vote to assure that they make decisions based upon educational priorities.

1. Look at your local school data. To what extent are current fourth graders at grade level in their reading proficiency? If your data provides categories of proficiency, such as “Advanced”, “Proficient”, “Basic”, or “Minimal Performance”, as the School Reports Cards in Wisconsin do, consider only the number of children who have achieved Advanced plus Proficient. Only these two categories approximate grade level reading skills.

Every child whose reading proficiency is not in the Advanced or Proficient category in the display of fourth grade reading is academically at risk from this point forward in their K-12 schooling.

2. Begin with your state legislators.

If your state does not have rigorous reading standards that are congruent through all grade levels, assure that your legislators support and consistently vote in support of rigorous academic state standards. Supporting rigorous local school district standards is not the same thing. This stance waffles on standards consistency. Local school boards may bow to local pressures for less than rigorous standards and leave your local children with reading standards that will not achieve grade level reading proficiency by fourth grade.

If your legislators do not support rigorous statewide reading standards, consider their lack of educational priorities the next time you vote for a state legislator.

3. Apply the same protocol to the presence of a state requirement that all school districts offer full-day, school year Kindergarten. Every family should have the option of Kindergarten instruction for their children.

If your legislators do not support a state requirement for full-day, school year Kindergarten, consider their lack of educational priorities the next time you vote for a state legislator.

4. Apply the same protocol to the presence of a state requirement that all school districts offer four-year old Kindergarten.

If your legislators do not support a state requirement for four-year old Kindergarten, consider their lack of educational priorities the next time your vote for a state legislator.

5. Apply the same protocol to your state governor.

If the governor does not support rigorous statewide reading standards or if the governor does not support requiring local school districts to offer full-day, school year Kindergarten and requiring local school districts to offer four-year old Kindergarten, consider the governor’s lack of educational priorities the next time you vote for a governor.

Helping every child to achieve a third grade reading proficiency by fourth grade is a matter of priorities and choices. Education priorities can be shaped by assuring that governors and legislators understand and vote in support of every child. Local educational advocates also have priorities and make choices – voting for governors and legislators who also advocate for education.