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.\u00a0 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\u2019t reading well in later grades will be a kid who isn\u2019t learning well. \u201cI just think that\u2019s imperative,\u201d Walker said, to make proficient reading a benchmark for every child before fourth grade starts.<\/p>\n
I agree with that. You agree with that. We all agree with that. So what do we do about it?<\/p>\n
Walker didn\u2019t spell out what kind of action he would put behind the idea.<\/p>\n
Does he favor ending the practice called social promotion? <\/p>\n
That\u2019s when children are passed to the next grade even if they aren\u2019t 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\u2019s research that says it\u2019s actually counter-productive.<\/p>\n
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 \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 cost money at a time when expanding school services is going to be far from the mind of most school officials. They\u2019re more likely to be worrying about holding on to what they have.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
By the way, in the fall of 2009, the most recent round of state testing for which results have been made public, 81 percent\u00a0of fourth graders statewide were rated as proficient or advanced in reading.\u00a0 For Milwaukee Public Schools, the figure was 58 percent. Among tenth graders in MPS, 38 percent\u00a0were 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\u00a0of Wisconsin fourth graders were rated as proficient or better in reading (68 percent\u00a0if the \u201cbasic\u201d level is included). Only 12 percent\u00a0of MPS fourth graders were rated as proficient or advanced in reading, based on NAEP scores (and 39 percent\u00a0if basic level readers are included).<\/p>\n
Was Walker signaling he\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Add this to the list: Getting \u00a0more kids to read well by the end of third grade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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