The alarms have been sounding for decades. Our first scare was in the 1950s. Russia launched their Sputnik satellite, an achievement that we expected to accomplish first. It forced new attention on our public education system.
In 1983, the report “A Nation at Risk” was published. It began this way:
Our nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world… We report to the American people that while we can take justifiable pride in what our schools and colleges have historically accomplished and contributed to the United States and the well-being of its people, the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.”
Annual Testing in Response to the Reading Crisis
Consequently, Congress formed the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP). It began annual testing in the 50 states in 1969. They continue to the present day in grades 4, 8, and 12. The tests cover a variety of subjects, especially reading and math proficiency. Unfortunately, the most recent figures show that the reading proficiency of our students declined by 5% from 1992 to 2015. Plus, the performance of our students on international assessments continues to slide.
Our students can’t read, and we are not teaching them. This has implications far beyond a reading crisis. If they can’t read, it’s foolish to expect them to excel in other disciplines.
We Can’t Address the Reading Crisis without a Change in Methods
There are current research and reports asserting that learning to read doesn’t come naturally to our brains. Research done in the late 1990s and published in 2000 by the National Reading Panel stresses the need for effective, systematic phonics in the early grades. Our school system abandoned this method almost a hundred years ago. We doomed ourselves to educational mediocrity. Students who can’t read with proficiency can’t learn with proficiency.
According to the NRP report, “These findings show that teaching children to manipulate phonemes in words was highly effective across all the literacy domains and outcomes,” improving reading, comprehension, and spelling. The question now is: can we turn this around by going back to what works. Systematic phonics would certainly not be a popular approach today. However, both teachers have little interest in using either repetition or memorization.
Obviously, it’s imperative that we resolve the reading crisis. Our children must learn to read. All indications point to phonetic training. Our educators may not enjoy this methodology, but our students will enjoy the benefits as will our country.