Adolescent Literacy: Ensuring that No Child is Left Behind (cont.)
DEFINING LITERACY
Literacy has been defined as, "an individual's ability to use printed information to function in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential." (NALS, 1996). Literacy is neither a single skill suited to all types of texts nor a specific set of skills. Rather literacy is a set of ordered skills that can be used to accomplish diverse tasks. For example, in reading, individuals must possess the knowledge and skills to locate and use information from texts that include editorials, news stories, poems, and fiction. Additionally, literate adolescents must be able to locate and use information contained in job applications, payroll forms, transportation schedules, maps, tables, and graphs.
Reading literacy can be rated on an achievement continuum that includes Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced levels. Foe example, grade 8 students at the Below Basic Level can identify two explicitly stated facts from an article and use text to recognize the definition of a specific term. Students at the Basic Level can recognize the central idea in an article, identify a story's theme, and provide specific text references to support a generalization. Students at the Proficient Level can use metaphor to interpret character and comprehend directions to complete a document form. Those at the Advanced Level can explain thematic difference between poems and compare different descriptions to integrate character (NAEP, 2002).
In an effort to increase reading literacy, the nation has concentrated needed attention on beginning readers, but efforts to help high school students are lagging. Few high schools today have reading programs to instruct students in basic and advanced reading skills and strategies. Some older students struggle with the reading demands of high school because they didn't master essential skills at the elementary level. Others mastered basic skills in elementary school but failed to acquire the skills and strategies to read more complicated material found in high school. Some students did not attain reading fluency or learn various reading comprehension strategies that advanced reading requires. These advanced strategies include summarization, making generalizations, synthesizing information, or monitoring understanding of the material. Many high school students are expected to learn reading strategies independently when in fact they need explicit instruction before they master advanced reading strategies. This is particularly true for students with learning disabilities. According to Richard Vacca,
"We're seduced by this notion that if we could just teach the basics by 4th grade, kids would be able to handle the complex demands of literacy that are required of middle and high school students. And that's just not going to happen."
Failure to address the poor reading performance of high school students is evident in reading assessment data. The results from the 2002 NAEP reading assessment indicate that many of the nation's 8th and 12th graders perform at levels well below the proficient level (see Table 2).
According to information from NAEP, 68% of 8th grade students and 64% of 12th grade students fail to attain the level of proficient reader, a goal set by the National Assessment Governing Board (This level is represented by the dotted line in Table 2). In fact, significant numbers of these students have yet to attain the level of basic reader.
In Table 3, student performance by ethnic group is shown. Average mean scores demonstrate the variability in reading performance of the various ethnic groups. For example, while Asian/Pacific Islander 8th grade students mean performance was close to the Proficiency Level minimum score of 281 (see dotted line in Table 3), the average mean scores for American Indian, Black, and Hispanic students were right at the lowest point of the basic level. Clearly, many students entering high school are not reading at the recommended level of proficiency thought to be necessary for success in high school and beyond.
Internationally, the challenge is similar. On the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) reading sub test, more American adolescents score at the lowest level than adolescents from many other countries. Specifically, on the 2001 PISA Assessment, 18% of American students scored at the lowest level and do not progress beyond proficiency in the simplest of reading tasks (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development). In short, U.S. 15-year olds are performing at the cross national "average." However, many are way below average.
When reading problems are not addressed in adolescent students, the consequences can be severe. Reading problems lead to failure in high school, which in turn may lead to many students giving up on education altogether. While progress was made during the 1970s and 1980s in reducing high school dropout rates, these rates have remained steady during the 1990s. The overall effect of the dropout rate is that some 4 million adolescents have dropped out of school during the past decade.
Portrait of High School Dropouts 2000:
- Each year 4.4% or 383,000 students in grades 10-12 leave school without graduating.
- The dropout rate for students living in poverty is six times higher than that of their peers who aren't poor.
- The drop out rate for minority students is between two and four times higher than that of white adolescents.
- In 2000, the proportion of the population that did not complete high school and was no longer enrolled in high school varied according to racial/ethnic groups. Specifically, 3.8% of Asian/Pacific Islander, 27.8% of Hispanic, 13.1% of Black, and 6.9% of White population groups had not completed and were not enrolled in high school.
Because 43% of today's workforce have not graduated from high school, the impact of adolescent and adult illiteracy on the U. S. economy is enormous. Losses in business and industry attributable to basic skill deficiencies in workers run into hundreds of millions of dollars annually because of low productivity, errors, and accidents. The U. S. Department of Labor estimates that 60% of unemployed workers lack the basic skills necessary to be trained for high-tech jobs in today's economy. The National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS, 1993) indicated that about 22% of adults were performing at Level 1, the lowest of five literacy levels.
The ramifications of illiteracy in the lives of adolescents are enormous and often devastating. First and foremost, poor literacy skills lead to frustration, embarrassment, a loss of self-esteem, a sense of hopelessness, and a longing for a "way out." Often the way out takes the form of delinquency - 85% of all juvenile offenders have reading problems.
The U.S. economy is changing rapidly in ways that may have negative consequences for workers who are deficient in reading skills. For example, today employers desire employees who: (1) read and do math at the ninth-grade level or higher, (2) can solve semi-structured problems, (3) communicate effectively, (4) work in groups with persons of various backgrounds, and (5) use personal computers to carry out tasks like word processing. Reading proficiency is foundational to these employment competencies.
