Gov. Scott Walker told school leaders from Wisconsin in a speech last week that he wants all children to read at grade level when they finish third grade. Conquering the basics of reading by that point is widely held by educators to be a key to long-term success for students. Walker used the phrases used by some educators, saying that, through third grade, children learn to read, but from fourth grade on, they read to learn. So a kid who isn’t reading well in later grades will be a kid who isn’t learning well. “I just think that’s imperative,” Walker said, to make proficient reading a benchmark for every child before fourth grade starts.
I agree with that. You agree with that. We all agree with that. So what do we do about it?
Walker didn’t spell out what kind of action he would put behind the idea.
Does he favor ending the practice called social promotion?
That’s when children are passed to the next grade even if they aren’t really on grade level. Ending that has been tried around the country, but there is almost no evidence that simply keeping a student for another year in, say, third grade accomplishes anything, and there’s research that says it’s actually counter-productive.
So what about creating or pumping up intervention programs that are available now for struggling readers? Tutoring, summer programs, extra small-group reading sessions, or one-on-one teacher-student work? All have the potential to help. But all – you guessed it – cost money at a time when expanding school services is going to be far from the mind of most school officials. They’re more likely to be worrying about holding on to what they have.
Or how about the state specifying reading programs to be used in school districts around the state or with children who are not off to a fast start as readers? There are people lobbying Walker aides and state Department of Public Instruction officials to do that. The programs they want generally would increase skill building and emphasize phonics-based instruction, approaches not favored by much of the education establishment in the state. Perhaps more important, Wisconsin remains a place with a strong legacy of local control of such decisions. The more specific a state mandate would be, the more it would go against local control.
By the way, in the fall of 2009, the most recent round of state testing for which results have been made public, 81 percent of fourth graders statewide were rated as proficient or advanced in reading. For Milwaukee Public Schools, the figure was 58 percent. Among tenth graders in MPS, 38 percent were rated as proficient or advanced. Using the higher bar set in the most recent rounds of the national testing program known as NAEP, 33 percent of Wisconsin fourth graders were rated as proficient or better in reading (68 percent if the “basic” level is included). Only 12 percent of MPS fourth graders were rated as proficient or advanced in reading, based on NAEP scores (and 39 percent if basic level readers are included).
Was Walker signaling he’s going to do something? Was he just holding out a goal? Was he saying something controversial or something that unites everyone (without meaning much)? It’s very early in the Walker administration, and he and his team have done little to spell out the specifics of what they will push in coming months. They already are working on a formidable list of education matters: School funding, performance pay for teachers, changes in job rights and fringe benefits for teachers, school choice and charter school issues, school quality issues.
Add this to the list: Getting more kids to read well by the end of third grade.
Many influences external to school affect a child’s ability to learn: sleep, nutrition, attitude, involvement in school. These are the responsibility of the home environment in helping a child be ready for school. Students grow to own their education through becoming responsible partners with their teachers. In the early stages, children cannot do it alone. This is an issue that is found outside MPS,too.
Oh if it were only as simple as three paragraphs on a blog. After 37 years of teaching I have seen all of the suggestions mentioned more than once. Learning is so much self motivation. How can we get failing students to want to learn to read and read more proficiently? They have to see a need and a direct result to their efforts. Mentors that are successful interacting with them. Grades going up because they are successful readers. Parents who are proud of them because they are successful. Packers who are successful because they study plays. The world being a better place because someone cares about his community. That’s what kids need to see….success breeds success. When is the last time you’ve taken the time to visit a classroom as a lawyer or law student?
I agree that a student ought to read on level before going into the next grade. However, I find students come into third grade without the strength to continue the skills learned in prior years. A long summer break, without any type of reinforcement of skills, causes a student to get out of the practice of using the strategies learned in earlier grades. What can we do to help students retain what they have already learned?
Wow! I have been very frustrated with the failure and lack of progress in our MPS school system. I am so frustrated that I have been on sick leave for quite some time. I am passionate about education, but when education has turned to benchmark this and benchmark that, this is truly not the answer. Many people who aren’t in the classroom anymore, or never have been, are making decisions that clearly aren’t working. Many administratiors love how the school looks or the way they say they have the staff’s backs, but that’s just a bunch of “talking loud and saying nothing!” Our students are suffering because our school building has become a place where adults socialize and get paid for doing it. I will not hang out with hypocrites that I see are doing wrong and then turn around and blame the educators who love to teach and love the classroom. I am financially busted, but I will remain this way until those higher up investigate their administrators. I am angry and confused as to why it is taking so long to get the foundation that is truly weak out, and start building from the ground up. Nothing can be strong if the foundation is weak. Our students can learn, if people who got out of the classroom to help students who are struggling would come and pick these students up on a regular basis instead of having a meeting everyday or walk around with a whole bunch of papers like they’re doing something very important. Trees are being killed and I don’t have enough books in my classroom to teach, but I can only get 2 reams of papers a month. My class cannot be run effectively, if I don’t have the proper supplies. Think about it. It’s very simple. A check is nice if it’s worked for, but if it’s not, and you are receiving one, you are to blame for the failure. Yes, I include myself in all of the statements I just made!
Milwaukee suffers from a huge population of children who come from generational poverty. This is the reality that comes to our schools. Once they enter our doors, it is our moral responsibility to “sweat the small stuff” in their learning and provide rigor in all that our learners are expected to perform. Successful urban schools are doing just this. They are beating the odds.
We must address the whole child and provide reading and writing support instructions K-12 across the content areas. National studies have provide evidence that shows high levels of students’ success in these areas.
1. Serious community and parent involvement programs with accountability data to target outcomes.
2. On-going target job training (professional development) for classroom teachers align with appropriate curriculum and instruction data that will address the academic needs of our K-12 students.
3. Central services and school administrators need to become effective instructional leaders and receive on-going target job training (professional development) with an accountability frameworks.
4. Reading and writing instructional strategies need to be taught across the content areas K-12. Struggling students will need assistance throughout their twelve year educational experience. Content area teachers 3-12 need to integrate their content area instructions with reading and writing strategies. Content area teaching staffs are not supportive of this need and reject it.
6. University content areas staff are also not supportive. So, content area teachers are not taught how to integrate reading and writing strategies in their training.
7. Struggling students are left on their own. Reading to learn means students will need the reading and writing strategies as tools to think and comprend at high levels of Blooms Taxonomy.
8. An active accountability framework needs to be not only in existence, but enforced. We do not in many cases from the central services level to the classroom level hold instructional staff accountable for the implementation to on the job training with classroom students.
We need to highlight community organizations for support given to our schools and have staff to recruit others. We need to illustrate open arms of welcome to parents who want to learn more about their role with the school in positive ways and align services to parents who need assistance. In addition, we need to support teachers with the appropriate curriculum, related supplies, on the job time for training, collaboration with support staff and co-workers. Our central service instructional staff and school administrators at all levels need to be effective instructional leaders. It is not just the only the third grade that needs addressing; we need to connect with success K-12. We will see those fourth, eighth and tenth grades reading, writing and mathematics scores rise. We must address the whole child.
Coincidentally, recently I spoke at a local public elementary school about what it’s like to be a lawyer. I tried to convey to the children how important reading and writing are in the study and practice of law. I really enjoyed preparing my presentation. It was a challenge to think of ways to explain what it is to be a lawyer using simple and direct words and examples.