No Statute of Limitations on Learning to Read Well: What do Upper-Level Students Need When They Are Struggling to Read?
Our guest authors are Sue Pimentel, co-founder of StandardsWork, and David Liben, and Meredith Liben founders and directors of Reading Done Right.
In American middle schools, it’s not enough to merely know how to read. Students are expected to understand, analyze, and make meaning from grade-level complex texts, which is only possible if they have the skills and knowledge to read well—fluently and with ease.
Yet nearly one in three U.S. eighth-graders reads below a basic level, including almost half of Black and Hispanic students. Most often, these students blame themselves for weak literacy skills and assume they just aren’t as bright or talented as their classmates. Extra help that uses materials from elementary school does little to dispel the notion. And it denies students access to the sophisticated grade-level vocabulary and content that can help them catch up, a vicious cycle where students are forever left behind.
American educators need a better playbook to coach upper-level students up to grade level—one that seamlessly integrates within a mainstream classroom while exposing all students to appropriately rigorous content and ideas. It’s never too late to learn how to read well, and it need not come at the expense of learning the knowledge and vocabulary they are expected to know by graduation.