Reading: "Consistent and Alarming"
Among the findings is that although reading scores among elementary school students have been improving, scores are flat among middle school students and slightly declining among high school seniors. These trends are concurrent with a falloff in daily pleasure reading among young people as they progress from elementary to high school, a drop that appears to continue once they enter college. The data also showed that students who read for fun nearly every day performed better on reading tests than those who reported reading never or hardly at all.Following up on Monday's post on area high schools' scores in recent reading evaluations, we post an excerpt from a recent New York Times article. The article reports on an NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) research report, "To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence". Here are the NEA documents: press release, executive summary, full study.
The study also examined results from reading tests administered to adults and found a similar trend: The percentage of adults who are proficient in reading prose has fallen at the same time that the proportion of people who read regularly for pleasure has declined.
-- "Study Links Drop in Test Scores to a Decline in Time Spent Reading", New York Times, November 19, 2007 (article here)
According to the Times, NEA Chair Gioia offers a variety of possible explanations for the decline in reading:
...he pointed to several commonly accepted culprits, including the proliferation of digital diversions on the Internet and other gadgets, and the failure of schools and colleges to develop a culture of daily reading habits. In addition, Mr. Gioia said, “we live in a society where the media does not recognize, celebrate or discuss reading, literature and authors.”The article goes on to give voice to critics of the study. They argue that the study misses some reading activities and may be simplistic.
However, the statement on the decline in reading over the course of middle and high schools, and the consequent decline in reading test scores over the same time span, seems confirmed in local and area scores.
The "Question of National Consequence" of the report's subtitle lies in employers' unhappiness with poor reading skills, and the influence on an employee's earning power of less than proficient reading.
We all have encountered difficulties with getting correct change in a retail store; these experiences seem to be a reflection of poor mathematics skills.
Have you run into a lack of reading -- literacy -- skills?
posted by PP | 12/05/2007 05:37:00 AM
2 Comments:
Reading proficiency starts at the school and continues at home. It is up to us parents to make sure the children read and read every day! If they are not old enough to read, read to them. If they cannot read well they cannot do Math, English, History, or any other subject that requires reading and reading comprehension.
Let me give you a little story about a simple gallon of paint. I bought a gallon of paint, the color was called "Ghost Dance" at Home Depot. Well, being frugal, I only bought the one gallon. That wasn't enough to finish the job so I headed back to Home Depot. The young clerk at the paint department entered the paint color into the computer and told me they didn't make that color. He tried again and again and still came up with the same answer. I told him I just bought it last week so they had to have it. Finally, A manager came over and found the color! Turns out the young man was spelling ghost as "Gost".
Let's put up the video games and the TV for a little while and get these kinds reading. Their future depends on it and so does ours.
"It's your privy."
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