Learning How To Read Is Not A Mystery
There was a time when nearly every child in the public schools across the United States was reading to grade level. Yet today, that is not true. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), funded by congress to assess what students know, reports in an article entitled "National Achievement-Level Results:"
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· Thirty-three percent of 4th graders in the United States were at or above NAEP standards for reading in 2022.
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· Thirty-one percent of eighth graders were at or above NAEP standards in 2022.
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· Thirty-seven percent of twelfth graders were at or above NAEP standards in 2019.
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If what they report is true then sixty some percent of U.S. students are below grade level in reading competency. Some of this is blamed on the COVID pandemic but notice that the twelfth grade score was pre-pandemic. So what happened?
There is no one answer, but Thomas Sowell states, "Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.” He was not the only one to say this. Long-time educators, now retired, have said the same. They watched in dismay as ill-advised school boards replaced what worked with what sounded good.
Learning to Read
Learning to read starts with phonics. Just like a building needs a solid foundation, phonics, knowing the sound of the alphabetical letters, is the foundation of reading. No one is saying the English language is easy but with systematic phonics based lessons, and practice, grade level reading can be achieved. Test scores are rising in states that are getting back to phonics based reading curriculum.​