Literacy

Though many states, from California to Florida, have passed 3rd grade reading policies throughout the years as a means of ensuring students are proficient at reading, experts say the punishment of holding students back a year is one that may do more harm than the intended good of additional support.

Michigan recently reversed a 2016 law that allowed schools to retain 3rd graders if they didn’t pass state assessments, though a 2021 report from Michigan State University found reading achievement had improved annually since the 3rd grade reading law passed.

While the 3rd grade reading policy may have benefited some students, others have not fared well, said Doris Walker-Dalhouse, professor of literacy at Marquette University and president of the Literacy Research Association. 

As early as 1st grade, students know they’ve failed and absorb that information negatively, Walker-Dalhouse said. “They develop this learning helplessness that they will not achieve and not be a good reader, and that gets worse,” she said. “Kids drop out very early, not physically but mentally.”

Using standard assessments to demonstrate a child’s reading ability can also harm those with developmental differences and other factors that could impact their scores, said Walker-Dalhouse. She added that retention does not address student needs nor emotional, social and cultural factors that may be at play.

“Instead, we need to think about why students struggle and not think about an end-all assessment, which can create stress for students who may not be capable in their linguistic development to demonstrate skill and proficiency,” Walker-Dalhouse said.

Victoria Risko, professor emerita of language, literacy, and culture at Vanderbilt University, said states using assessments as their guidepost for promoting students need to review how these exams are constructed — and through a lens of equity.

“Is it that they can’t learn, or are we not tapping into what they need?” Risko said. “The tests are quite discriminatory.”

Ultimately, stakeholders should consider if the goal is to ensure 3rd-graders read by the end of the school year but end up hating the practice, said Walker-Dalhouse. Or if the goal is to develop an interest in continuing to read, she said, helping them pursue their education throughout their life.

“When looking at any information, of course some will say gains are there,” she said. “But what to the extent of long-term interest in being literate? Meaning I can read, but do I choose to read?"

Tucked in California Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposed education budget is $1 million to develop a Literacy Roadmap that would include "explicit instruction in phonics, phonemic awareness, and other decoding skills, as well as development of vocabulary, comprehension, writing, speaking, and listening skills."

Separately, the National Student Support Accelerator conducted research into a kindergarten literacy tutoring program that provides "short bursts" of instruction in phonics and reading fluency, finding students who participated were over two times more likely than their peers to reach a targeted reading stage at the end of the year.

In an effort to boost academic outcomes and make up for pandemic learning losses, local and state school systems are evaluating current literacy instructional methods, reviewing achievement data, and advocating for curriculum and instruction that are aligned with science-based reading approaches. 

There's momentum driving the adoption of strategies for teaching foundational reading skills, including the emphasis on skills needed to sound out letters to make words, learn sight words and read fluently. It's difficult, however, to quickly switch from one approach to another. What and how to teach and how and when to conduct professional development are just a few of the details to sort out.

In California, state leaders set a goal that, by 2026, all students will read by the 3rd grade. That effort is being driven by a statewide literacy task force, whose work will include consideration of reading research for all students, including English learners, those with disabilities, struggling readers and young students. 

"When students don’t learn to read by third grade, they are at greater risk to drop out of school and end up in the criminal justice system," said Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, in a Jan. 10 statement. 

Disappointing results from reading assessments over the past few years are helping to fuel a new focus on reading instruction. While some research shows recent year-over-year reading proficiency increasing, a recent Amplify analysis of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) performance outcomes finds 32% of kindergartners this school year are behind in reading and are in need of intensive interventions. 

Also driving new attention and investments into reading instruction are significant amounts of federal COVID-19 relief funds. Several state agencies plus 35 of the nation’s 100 largest school districts planned to use money from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds for literacy training, researchers from FutureEd at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy told K-12 Dive last fall.

North Carolina, for example, set aside $12 million of the state’s ESSER share for Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, or LETRS. The funding will go toward a professional development course for elementary educators to support their knowledge of the foundations for reading instruction, including phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, writing and language.

When families are deeply involved in their children’s learning, student academic success often follows. But what does that look like in action?

Research has consistently shown that home-school partnerships lead to higher grades, test scores, attendance and graduation rates, said Karen Mapp, a senior lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Mapp spoke Tuesday during the U.S. Department of Education’s first online panel discussion in its Family Engagement Learning Series.

“Family engagement is not a new concept,” Mapp said. “It is an essential ingredient to the success of our students in our schools, but we still are battling a little bit to try to get people to accept this and realize this.”

The Education Department’s series was launched in partnership with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Overdeck Family Foundation “to boost family engagement and lift parent voices,” the department said in a statement. The online series comes several months after the Education Department disbanded its newly formed National Parents and Families Engagement Council. The council’s dissolution followed the filing of a lawsuit by a group of conservative activists who claimed the effort lacked “balanced” perspectives. 

The department said it disagreed with the lawsuit’s claims and would continue to connect with families nationwide by holding town halls and distributing resources. 

Improving literacy

A parent’s relationship with their child is “the most underutilized natural resource in education,” said Alejandro Gibes de Gac, CEO and founder of the nonprofit Springboard Collaborative, during the virtual session. The collaborative provides tools to districts coaching parents and teachers on how to collaborate to improve students’ literacy.

The first step is to build trust between parents and teachers, Gibes de Gac said. Then, both parties need to understand the student’s current reading level to know how to move forward. 

Parents and teachers may, for instance, want to help a student achieve a specific goal, like moving up a reading level within five to 10 weeks. During that time, students would need to practice reading at home for at least 15 minutes per day and also get tutoring or classroom help, Gibes de Gac said. Progress should then be measured by parents and teachers after that time frame, he said, and any met goals celebrated to help develop habits of future success.

“Those small wins lead to big wins down the road,” he said.

Springboard Collaborative partners with over 60 Title I schools nationwide, and their weekly family workshops average 88% attendance, according to Gibes de Gac. Students in the program show average reading growth by 2.3 to 9.5 months in early literacy skills within five to 10 weeks, he said. 

“This is a huge amount of instructional time that would be difficult and frankly expensive to replicate through teachers or tutors,” Gibes de Gac said. “Only when parents and teachers work together, can school communities unlock their true potential.”

Taking on math

Reading is not the only discipline where family engagement practices need to be linked with learning, educators say. According to Mapp, it’s important to dispel the myth that certain subjects — particularly math — are too hard for families to engage in.

With the right support, parents are interested in helping their children learn at home, Mapp said. Studies have shown that when families take part in targeted math workshops and join in follow-up learning activities at home, students’ math performance improves, Mapp said. 

Parent-teacher home visits are tied to better math outcomes, too, she said.

“This engagement isn’t just good for our students, it’s good for our educators,” Mapp said. “We find that when our educators engage with families, a lot of the deficit-based mindsets they have about families begin to melt away. They start to really appreciate multi-cultural awareness and know how to do those strategies and practices.”

When schools have strong family engagement strategies, morale is higher among staff, too, Mapp said. On top of that, she said, “schools have better reputations in the community when they’re engaged with families.”

Mid-year testing results show fewer young students are in need of intensive interventions for reading compared to the same point last school year. Achievement gaps have also shrunk between Black and Hispanic students and their Asian and White peers in grades K-2, according to a report by Amplify, a curriculum and assessment company that uses its mCLASS platform to help teachers administer the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) assessment.

There is, however, a higher percentage of students deemed at risk for reading interventions than prior to the pandemic in the 2019-20 school year. Third graders showed no improvement in mid-year testing over the last two school years.

"This group of students who experienced the most instructional loss may need more support to catch up and stay on track," the report said.

The analysis draws from assessment results from 300,000 students representing 1,400 school districts in 43 states.

The report recommends schools and districts invest in a reliable universal screener, high-quality core curriculum, evidence-based interventions and professional development.

Students’ data literacy is showing signs of decline since the pandemic, with 8th graders showing a 10-point drop on National Assessment of Educational Progress scores in data analysis, statistics and probability between 2019 and 2022, according to a new analysis of test scores by the Data Science 4 Everyone coalition. Scores for fourth graders declined by 4 points in the same period. 

These falling scores indicate 4th graders now have the data literacy skills of 3rd graders from a decade ago, and today’s 8th graders have the data literacy skills of 6th graders from a decade ago. 

Large racial gaps in data literacy scores also widened during the pandemic, the coalition said. Most recently, Black 4th graders scored 28 points lower than their White peers in the content area, while Black 8th graders scored 34 points lower than their White peers.

Data literacy took one of the hardest hits in NAEP test score data compared to other math subjects, the coalition said.

It appeared in 2019 that data-driven courses like statistics and probability were gaining traction, with 25% of 12th graders saying they took such a course in middle or high school. But it looks like that momentum may have slowed during the pandemic. 

This steady downward trend may be due in part to a decline in teachers instructing data-related courses. Between 2019 and 2022, the portion of 4th grade math teachers who said they put a “moderate” or “heavy” emphasis on data analysis dipped 5 percentage points, from 81% to 76%, according to the Data Science 4 Everyone coalition.

High school students taking AP tests have meanwhile shown more interest in humanities courses than in math and science, according to a 2022 analysis of course credits and AP data from the U.S. Department of Education and College Board. Students took 2,008,352 AP humanities exams in 2020, while 1,034,255 took AP tests in behavioral and social science, 788,149 in natural science, 769,366 in math and computer science, and 79,218 in art, according to data from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

When schools hone in on data literacy skills, they set students up for more career and postsecondary opportunities, said Zarek Drozda, director of Data Science 4 Everyone and the study author, in a statement. 

“The ability to interpret, understand, and work with data is central to so many aspects of our lives and careers today. Data literacy is a must-have for every employee, every business owner, and every participant in our democracy,” said Drozda. 

To improve students’ data literacy outcomes, the study suggests teachers relate data science classes and content more to math instruction. Connecting data literacy to other subjects like social studies or English, as well as creating data-related career and technical education course options, can help improve students’ data literacy skills, too, the report said. 

Evidence-based literacy approaches that lean on decoding, phonics and other tools to help pupils develop reading skills are regaining traction. But as districts return to methods centered around the “science of reading,” they also need to build in the time and resources to ensure educators have the foundation in these approaches to best support students.

A focus on teacher preparation is key because literacy instruction methods may change, especially as districts and states address pandemic-related learning loss. No matter the approach, educators must be grounded in strategies that keep students excited about learning to read and help them develop literacy skills, said Kenneth Kunz, president of the board of directors for the International Literacy Association.

“I believe it is important to recognize that as multiple sciences of reading are combined with the art that is language arts teaching, educators are guided by standards that inform us what to teach but still need a variety of research-based strategies for engagement to accomplish the how,” Kunz said.

The science of reading, which in part embodies phonics as part of literacy instruction, is regaining traction. Recently, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced it is looking to embed this approach in its literacy instruction. That decision followed a mandate from New York City Public Schools, the largest school system in the nation, to include phonics in elementary school reading instruction starting in fall 2023.

This embrace of an evidence-based literacy approach follows a significant dip in reading gains following the pandemic, particularly among the nation’s youngest students. Some educators advise caution, however, as they believe a one-size-fits-all model may not be the right approach for every student, including diverse learners as well as those from differing socioeconomic, linguistic, cultural, and other backgrounds.

Kunz said evidence shows there is never a “silver bullet,” when it comes to literacy. But whatever approach is adopted, stakeholders must ensure they’ve set aside resources to invest in teachers.

“There is going to be a lot of work ahead for teachers and coaches to unpack how this work impacts different populations,” Kunz said. “Schools adopting SOR [science of reading] cannot afford to lose sight of that.”

Kunz said the “pendulum swinging” around literacy approaches within education is fairly constant over time, a conversation he recalls having when pursuing his doctorate in literacy. The former classroom teacher said whatever direction literacy instruction takes, educators should remain focused on how they build literacy into curriculum. A specific approach is less important than ensuring pupils and their support networks are brought together to help them along their literacy path.

“Even if SOR [science of reading] gains momentum today, where does this pendulum swing in 2030, as it indeed swings when you look at historical trends,” Kunz said. “Regardless of the latest trend, we need to focus on teaching and how school communities take literacy beyond just a block of time and engage caregivers, families and communities.”