Couldn't Have Said it Better Myself...

From the Alliance for Excellent Education:

"Millions of middle and high school students lack the literacy skills—including reading, writing, and critical thinking—that they need to succeed in college and the workplace. According to The Nation’s Report Card fewer than one third of eighth graders read at a proficient level. Policymakers have directed considerable resources toward improving the skills of the nation’s youngest schoolchildren, and higher scores for fourth graders indicate that these investments are paying off. However, similar investments have not been made to support the literacy needs of students in the later grades; thus, academic gains are not being sustained through secondary schooling when students need instruction in advanced literacy skills necessary to succeed with more complex content. As a result, while fourth-grade proficiency rates on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) increased from 1998 through 2007, the percentage of eighth graders who scored at or above proficient declined.

"Only 29 percent of America’s eighth-grade public school students meet the NAEP standard of reading proficiency for their grade level.

"Approximately eight million of the 32.5 million students in fourth through twelfth grade read below NAEP’s minimum or ―basic standards for their grade level.

 

"A mere 2 percent of all eighth graders read at an advanced level."

To address such a massive problem, we need a portfolio of solutions. A huge number of the public school students entering 9th grade (71%!) are not proficient in reading, yet so often we say that this is too late to intervene. The fact that we have not successfully intervened at the high school level is not an indication that it can't be done. We have a responsibility to improve literacy interventions in high schools. Reach, Inc. aims to be part of the solution.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

Founder and President - Reach, Inc.