Many schools have invested in a second chance reading program for middle and high school students.
For these students and many ELL students, the prognosis for success in our system is poor, and options for higher education and careers will be severely limited by a lack of reading ability.
My question is simple. Why would we wait until sixth or seven grade to initiate a second chance reading program? Shouldn’t we be identifying and rescuing struggling readers sooner?
The Huffington Post cites a new study that reveals that the level of reading skills children develop by third grade may indicate their likelihood of graduating high school.
Released by The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the report found that students who don't read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to leave school without a diploma when compared to proficient readers. The number rises when those kids also come from poverty.
Third grade seems to by the critical juncture when students should be able to focus less on the fundamentals of decoding words and more on reading comprehension and fluency. It’s also at this same time, that fewer school resources are devoted to teaching children to read.
RTI in its purest form, was originally introduced to teach, or re-teach, students how to read. However something is still amiss because 6.2 million students dropped out of high school in 2007. Many have given up because they simply cannot read.
We need to take a closer look at explicit, systematic reading programs to give all students who have slipped through the system another-viable chance to learn to read.
Enough with the politics of reading – let’s do it right the first time.
What are you missing when it comes to effectively teaching your students how to read? Find out here!