Today’s Literacy Headlines

Six-year-old Kaleb Gonzalez-Muniz carried his electronic reader to a visitor in his first-grade classroom at Walter Caldwell Elementary School and announced he was reading a book about the Loch Ness monster. “This woman thought she saw one, but what if she actually saw the last plesiosaurus?” he asked, pointing at the page of the Epic! digital library book. “I love this program because of that” enthusiasm, said his teacher, Jennifer Burnett. She was Caldwell’s 2017 teacher of the year and a finalist for the Polk County school district’s top teacher that same year. Burnett was one of nine Florida teachers chosen as a Master Teacher and brand ambassador for Epic!, a company that provides unlimited in-school access to a digital catalog of more than 40,000 books, audiobooks, quizzes and educational videos in a kid-friendly platform. Epic! for Educators is provided free of charge for elementary school teachers and school librarians.

Fourth-grader Lainey Rogers put in her coin and pushed the letters and numbers on the dial pad. What Lainey did get was a surprise – a book she had never read before, and one she could call her own. The machine, called Inchy, the Bookworm Vending Machine, is the only one of its kind in the Sioux Falls School District. The vending machine doesn’t cost money, but it does take gold coins given to students for being “Hurricane Heroes,” for exhibiting kindness and good behavior. “It’s an amazing engagement tool we can use for kids. What’s been really fun to watch unfold is the investment our kids have in not only wanting to meet those Hurricane behavior expectations, but also the way they’re having conversations around books and authors.”

Glynnis Fawkes’s graphic biography of Charlotte Brontë opens with the 20-year-old aspiring writer receiving a letter from the poet Robert Southey. He warns her, “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life.” Find yourself a husband, he says; write poems on the side if you must. But creative aspirations? Forget about it. Thankfully, today’s shelves are filled with stories about and by women who wouldn’t oblige. And, as everyone knows, extraordinary women start as girls — smart, determined and chafing against society’s notions of what they should be. So it seems fitting that two new graphic novels examine what happens just before the blockbuster moment where childhood makes way for nothing less than iconhood in the making.

On the heels of a troubling “report card” on reading and math skills among American students, a global test of adult skills suggests older generations may echo those problems. The 2017 results of the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies finds that America’s adult workforce is no more skillful in reading, math, or digital problem-solving than it was five years ago, even though more students are graduating from high school. Every three years, the PIAAC measures the literacy, numeracy, and digital problem-solving skills of “working age” adults, 16 to 65, in 38 countries, including 23 in 2011-12, and another nine in 2014-15. In both math and digital problem-solving skills, U.S. adults scored significantly below the international average:

It’s official—the book world can’t get enough of audiobooks. Like everyone else, I love listening to a good story while finishing household chores. But one time, I ticked off my to-do list too fast. So, I decided to fire up my Kindle Paperwhite to read along with the narrator. Guess what, it was a eureka moment for me. After weeks of doing this, I think it facilitated my reading comprehension and made me understand the story better.

We are enjoying the early stages of a surprising and encouraging curriculum moment in education marked by robust attention and interest in scientifically-sound reading instruction. Among veteran advocates for knowledge-rich curriculum, it feels like a long overdue and welcome change in the weather. If I may offer some unsolicited advice to my fellow disciples in the cause of research-based teaching and knowledge-rich curricula: widen your lens, embrace complexity, forget top-down initiatives, counsel patience, brace yourself for years of struggle, identify your allies doing the actual work, and prepare to protect their flank. In sum, abandon single-issue curriculum advocacy, which is naïve, unrealistic, and self-defeating. It paves the way for more of the wild, fad-prone gyrations that we see over and over in this field.

Any way you say it, the latest scores from the Nation’s Report Card were bad, with trends getting worse over time. In particular, America’s lowest-performing students, who also tend to be our lowest-income children, are faring particularly poorly, especially in eighth grade, and especially in reading, but pretty much all across the board. Meanwhile, our higher-achieving students are mostly holding steady or even making gains — cause for celebration, to be sure, but also a clue as to what might be happening in schools and beyond. What might explain all this? Let me dig into three hypotheses: It’s the economy, it’s the pixels, or it’s our shift in attention away from basic skills.

Mississippi is delivering, and its students are the beneficiaries.The state proved a bright spot on the most recent Nation’s Report Card. Mississippi’s gains came as students in many states did worse in 2019 than they did in 2017 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) — to the disappointment of leaders, educators and parents across the United States. Mississippi’s progress in reading, at a time when many other states’ scores are stagnant or falling, is a prime example of how a state’s long-term commitment to its goals can pay off. In 2003, the state began requiring future K-6 teachers to take two early literacy courses in their teacher-preparation training. These courses ground all new Mississippi teachers in what it takes to teach young children to read. A decade later, the state’s 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act focused on K-3 literacy professional development for teachers and funded literacy coaches in schools with the most students performing at low levels on the state’s literacy assessment.

HarperCollins Children’s Books will launch a Native-focused imprint, Heartdrum, in 2021. The imprint, which will be led by author Cynthia Leitich Smith and HarperCollins Children’s Books vice president and editorial director Rosemary Brosnan, plans to bring “a wide range of innovative, unexpected, and heartfelt stories by Native creators, informed and inspired by lived experience, with an emphasis on the present and future of Indian Country and on the strength of young Native heroes” to young readers, according to the publisher’s announcement. The launch list includes Ancestor Approved, an anthology edited by Smith, and The Sea in Winter by Christine Day.

A national report card finds reading proficiency for American fourth-grade and eighth-grade students is declining. We go behind the numbers to understand why, in this discussion with Liana Loewus, assistant managing editor for Education Week, Emily Hanford, senior producer and education correspondent for APM Reports, part of American Public Media, Kelly Butler, CEO of the Barksdale Reading Institute, and Nell Duke, professor at the University of Michigan School of Education focused on early literacy development.

The most successful K-3 teachers I’ve observed use small groups sparingly. That’s because their whole-class instruction consistently incorporates the most proven (but rarely implemented) elements of successful teaching. They master simple methods for ensuring that all students are attentive, and they conduct frequent, ongoing assessments of the class’s progress throughout the lesson—and then re-teach accordingly. In a two-hour reading block, five groups of students will receive about 20 minutes of reading instruction per day. In a classroom that uses small groups more sparingly, students will receive about 80 minutes—three to four times as much. This would allow for huge infusions of instructional time into the essential components of literacy.

The use of science to inform learning and development can have profound results for children, particularly those in their first few years of life. So say the experts—among them Randa Grob-Zakhary, a resident of Switzerland who holds doctoral degrees in neuroscience and medicine from Johns Hopkins University. Trained as a physician and neurosurgeon, Grob-Zakhary came to the education industry when she was pregnant with her first child, a time during which she “became acutely aware of the massive gap between what we know about children’s learning and development, and what we’re actually using,” she says. She’s currently in the process of launching Insights for Education, a consulting company to help organizations apply the evidence-based practices that we know work well. “The whole purpose is not to develop new research but to make much more use of what’s there already,” she explains. One of the many areas Grob-Zakhary wants to zero in on in her new role is early childhood education, which studies show is the most critical time in a person’s development.

East St. Louis, one of the country’s poorest cities, has been labeled the worst-performing school district in the nation. Only 73 percent of students graduate high school — compared to 89 percent in Illinois and 93 percent just across the river in Missouri. The lead poisoning and asthma rates here are some of the nation’s highest, and 43 percent of East St. Louis residents live below the poverty line. In a place where some neighborhoods have been labeled child care deserts because there are no child care centers, community leaders hope that improving early childhood education will reverse the city’s fortunes. Top-notch early learning environments have been shown to improve academic outcomes for the most vulnerable children — even years later. However, most U.S. cities and towns, including East St. Louis, still lack the funding to provide high-quality programs for all the young children who need them.

Content knowledge is coming back into vogue, and while there are plenty of cognitive science-heavy explanations out there, the basic idea is easy to grasp. If you know a lot about dinosaurs, you have an easier time reading and comprehending a book about dinosaurs. If you are trying to sound out an unfamiliar word on the page, it’s easier if you already know the word by sound. If you learn and store new information by connecting it to information you already have banked, that process is easier if you actually have plenty of information already stored away. So if we restore rich content to education and provide students with a wealth of background knowledge, will that revitalize education and fix some of the issues that have plagued us?

Our series section is a popular place for students to be. They’re going to find favorites like Dork Diaries, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Big Nate (none of which need any boosting help from me here—I’m guessing you’re all familiar with these titles) . There are older series that are still popular, such as Horrible Harry, Animal Ark, 39 Clues, Geronimo Stilton/Thea Stilton, A-Z Mysteries, and Hank Zipzer. I’m going to run down a dozen series here that see a lot of interest and may be newer and/or less well known.

A state task force submitted recommendations to Iowa lawmakers Monday aimed at improving instruction for students with dyslexia and other struggling readers. Five to 17 percent of the population is estimated to have dyslexia. “Across Iowa, students with the characteristics of dyslexia, their families, and their teachers face many challenges, including lack of resources, lack of consistency in services across the state, and misinformation,” the task force report begins. The task force is recommending that Iowa adopt specific policies related to dyslexia, partly by building on existing policies for struggling readers. Katie Greving, a task force member and president of Decoding Dyslexia Iowa, said the group wants state education regulators to develop a dyslexia-specific teaching endorsement.

Barbershop Books is a community-based literacy program that aims to encourage young boys of color to read. The program puts a colorful book-shelf in a local barbershop that holds books curated to young boy’s tastes and provides a safe space for them to come and read in a positive environment.

Diversity, understanding bias, and the power of human kindness were main themes in all three conference keynote speeches at the recent Association of American School Librarians (AASL) National conference. Ellen Oh, author and co-founder of We Need Diverse Books, educator Adolph Brown, and graphic novelist Jarrett J. Krosoczka also spoke of the profound influence libraries had on their childhoods and lives. Brown, the former dean at Hampton University, took the stage with a swagger, dressed as “Undercover Brother,” in baggy clothes and a droopy backpack, and a floppy dreadlock wig. “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” he reminded the audience, describing how, that morning, a guard didn’t believe Brown was the AASL keynote speaker.

Records obtained by the Houston Chronicle show that thousands of elementary and middle school children in the Houston Independent School District rarely take home books from their campus library, limiting opportunities to hone literacy skills and a love for reading at a critical time in their development. In at least seven HISD schools, all of which serve predominantly low-income students, a majority of children did not check out a single book in 2018-19, the records show. The paltry checkout rates are indicative of HISD’s relatively low investment in library services, which has drawn criticism for more than a decade from librarians, literacy advocates and some district leaders.

Bright Beginnings, a nonprofit preschool in Washington, DC, was founded in 1990 by the Junior League of Washington to help children who were growing up in families experiencing homelessness. Today, Bright Beginnings embraces a two-generation approach that directs as much attention at Mom and Dad as at the child. And at grandparents, aunts and uncles, too.

In celebration of World Kindness Day, Pittsburghers — including adorable newborn babies — are wearing cardigans to honor Mister Rogers. And at Magee-Womens Hospital, it was red letter day. More accurately, it was a red sweater day. Each bundle of joy in the maternity ward was decked out in a hand-crocheted red sweaters and blue sneaker booties in honor of Fred Rogers for World Kindness Day. Mister Rogers’ wife Joanne got to meet the six adorable newborn babies.

Monique Fields has published essays touching on race and identity for mediums including NPR’s “All Things Considered” and Ebony Magazine. But “Honeysmoke,” published in January, was her first book. The book centers around the journey of a biracial girl searching to find answers to questions about her identity and ultimately concluding that though her mother is black, and her father is white, she is neither one – she is honeysmoke.

EdReports, the nonprofit curriculum reviewer, released its first reviews of foundational reading and writing skills programs on Wednesday — and none of the materials met the evaluator’s highest standard. This release marks EdReports’ first foray into reviewing supplemental materials. Traditionally, the organization has only reviewed year-long, comprehensive curricula — in math, English/language arts, and science.

Memorabilia and objects have long inspired the work of writers and artists. In interviews, conversations, or emails, Daryl Grabarek of School Library Journal has learned how particular items kept close, shared, or spotted in a museum, have stirred their imaginations or brought a period, person, or idea into sharper focus. Here are some of those stories, including one about an artifact “that got away.”

Educators in search of engaging new chapter books to read aloud to their students need go no further. From titles that will ignite discussions about contemporary issues, highlight little-known true stories, or tug on the heartstrings, these books will find a place on classroom shelves.

One preschool in Spokane Valley is breaking barriers, as they hold class outside in the Dishman Hills Natural Area. This is part of a pilot project the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families is testing out.

Hands waved eagerly in the air as students at Joe Michell K-8 School hoped to be picked to have their favorite animal drawn by children’s book illustrator, Christian Robinson. Robinson, a graduate of California Institute of the Arts, is an acclaimed illustrator of 14 children’s books, including “Gaston” by Kelly di Puchhio, and the New York Times bestseller “Last Stop on Market Street” by Matt de la Pena, which won the John Newbery Medal as well as a Caldecott Honor.

Joseph S. Renzulli is a distinguished professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut and co-founder, with Sally M. Reis, of the Renzulli Learning System. In this editorial, he writes, “History is replete with men and women who were not superstars in school but who made notable contributions to their respective areas of interest and strengths when given opportunities and support.”

In the wake of falling reading scores on the test known as the Nation’s Report Card, 12 major education groups are calling on schools to adopt evidence-based reading instruction, joining the growing number of education groups publicly advocating for the “science of reading” — the decades of psychology and cognitive science research that demonstrate best practices in teaching children how to comprehend text.

Currently only one in four Illinois children shows up to kindergarten prepared, according to results of a state kindergarten readiness assessment. One reason: While the state has invested in quality programs, they reach too few children. A September analysis by the group Illinois Action for Children illustrated vast inequities in how preschool seats are distributed. Some communities have no seats for children from low-income families, while others have an overabundance. How Illinois can fortify its system, which is recognized nationally for its high quality but only reimburses centers between $24 and $32 a day to care for preschoolers, is one of the questions facing the administration of Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

In an era of tight library budgets, grants can make the difference between standard and great programming. Librarians use grants for everything from dramatically expanding services to modestly boosting technology. The good news is that funding opportunities abound, whether that means pursuing a large, federally funded grant package or finding a few hundred dollars through local channels. Still, librarians need to know where to look for grants, and how to shape a compelling proposal, implement an initiative, and follow up effectively. Here’s what some librarians have dreamed up, and how they are following through on their winning proposals.

Thousands of educators and researchers converged on New Orleans, LA, last month for the ILA 2019 Conference. Interactive panels, casual conversations, and thought-provoking sessions led to new themes emerging from the conference that sparked fresh ideas. For our next #ILAchat on 11/14 at 8pm ET, we will be discussing a theme that continues to generate conversation: how early childhood writing instruction can help improve literacy.

American students have never had more access to digital devices for reading in and out of school. Now emerging research and troubling results on the test dubbed the Nation’s Report Card raise questions about what effect all this digital access could have on students’ longterm reading skills. An Education Week analysis of NAEP background data found that in both grades 4 and 8, spending more time using a computer or digital device for English and language arts work was associated with lower reading proficiency on the test. In three separate meta-analyses in the last two years, researchers have found the habits associated with reading digitally can decrease students’ skills in following a narrative, and comprehending text deeply—exactly the skills measured under NAEP’s literary experience content.

An alarm sounded last week when results from the Nation’s Report Card showed faltering reading levels for America’s young people. The release from the National Association of Educational Progress (NAEP) revealed a decrease in student achievement in 17 states in fourth grade reading and 31 states in eighth grade reading in the last two years. With all of the “breaking news” in our day to day lives, this headline is worthy of real reflection. Our students and our schools need and deserve our help. This week, more than ten leading education groups have issued an urgent call to action to focus on five critical areas, including these: embracing the science of reading; pushing for use of high-quality, standards- aligned curriculum; and advancing the capacity of teachers in teaching literacy by way of teacher preparation programs.

For many families, reading is a pleasurable activity when kids are young, but becomes a battle as kids get older. Parents are more aware than ever that strong reading skills are fundamental to academic success. Teachers also feel pressure to make sure students are reading on or above grade level, often with their evaluations and salaries hanging in the balance. On top of it all, parents are increasingly finding that it’s hard to tempt kids to read when there are more alluring entertainment options like video games, social media and TV to occupy their time. All of this has turned reading into a battleground, when it should be a joyful experience.

Earlier this month, I shared a bunch of recent picture books that focus on community, caring, inclusivity, and connections. Today, I’m looking at graphic novels that are popular in the elementary library where I work. Just like I firmly believe picture books are for people of all ages, and have value and usefulness for people beyond the “recommended” age group, graphic novels also have wider appeal than their suggested ages may indicate. Even if you just work with older teens, it’s useful to know about these books that may be more widely read by younger readers, but will certainly find older audiences.

There was somber news released last week on the state of education in America. The independent benchmark called the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), known as “the Nation’s Report card,” released its 2019 results, and the signs of progress we all were seeking simply weren’t there. In fact, the scores show a decrease in student achievement in 17 states in fourth grade reading, and 31 states in eighth grade reading in the last two years. If you’re not knee-deep in the education world, you may be unaware about the significance of NAEP, but this data is something we should all pay attention to.

A growing body of research suggests that DLLs’ academic and language development is well supported by dual language programs that provide instruction in English and the home language with the goal of bilingualism and biliteracy. A new study from the Urban Institute (funded by the Foundation for Child Development) extends this literature base by examining the impact of dual language on the English and Spanish oral proficiency of DLL children in Head Start. Notably, the study was conducted in 153 Head Start and Migrant Head Start classrooms across southern and central California and southern Florida with over 800 children.

November marks the 50th anniversary of public television’s “Sesame Street,” a cultural landmark widely praised for its approach to children’s programming. But beyond the songs and fun, “Sesame Street” does some serious work for those in need, providing special support and guidance for military families and addressing topics like autism and addiction.

The poor quality of student writing is a common lament among college professors. But how are elementary, middle and high school teachers supposed to teach it better? Unfortunately, this is an area where education research doesn’t offer educators clear advice. “What’s very odd about writing is how small the research base is,” said Robert Slavin, director of the Center for Research and Reform in Education at the Johns Hopkins School of Education. “There’s remarkably very little high-quality evidence of what works in writing.” One broad lesson that emerges from the 12 tested programs was that students benefit from step-by-step guides to writing in various genres. Argumentative writing, for example, is very different from fiction writing. The What Works Clearinghouse, a federal government website of scientifically proven ideas in education, also highlights the importance of explicit writing instruction that varies by genre for both elementary and high school students. Another lesson is that students also need explicit grammar and punctuation instruction but it should be taught in the context of their writing, not as a separate stand-alone lesson.

There’s new evidence that girls start out with the same math abilities as boys. A study of 104 children from ages 3 to 10 found similar patterns of brain activity in boys and girls as they engaged in basic math tasks, researchers reported Friday in the journal Science of Learning. “They are indistinguishable,” says Jessica Cantlon, an author of the study and professor of developmental neuroscience at Carnegie Mellon University. The finding challenges the idea that more boys than girls end up in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) because they are inherently better at the sort of thinking those fields require. It also backs other studies that found similar math abilities in males and females early in life.

Teaching methods and ideologies matter — a lot. For students with ADHD or learning disabilities, who learn outside the box, it can make all the difference in the world to have an enlightened educator who understands that process trumps outcome, that anxiety impedes learning, that every child has innate strengths, and these four additional educational truths.

Author Brad Meltzer lives in South Florida, but he’s in Washington, D.C., this weekend. A new PBS children’s series, Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum, based on Meltzer’s Ordinary People Change the World picture-book biographies, had its premiere at the Library of Congress and will debut on PBS channels and the PBS Kids digital platforms on Monday. He writes novels for adults, nonfiction, television and comic books, but his children’s books have a special place in Meltzer’s heart. He and his wife have two sons and a daughter, and, he says during a phone interview, “I want my kids to get off their screens, off their phones, so I have to give them something better to look at. We want to give kids better characters to look up to.” So he began the Ordinary People series in 2014 with I Am Abraham Lincoln, I Am Amelia Earhart, I Am Rosa Parks and I Am Albert Einstein. The books, for kids ages 5 to 8, focus not on the well-known accomplishments of historical figures but on their childhoods.

Test scores for students with learning disabilities improve after they are classified into special education, and the gains are greatest for students who entered special education before they reached middle school, a recently released report finds. The report, “The Effects of Special Education on the Academic Performance of Students With Learning Disabilities,” used data from the New York City schools to track the academic performance of more than 44,000 students with learning disabilities over seven years. Overall, students who began special education services in grades 4 and 5 “were more likely to be placed, and remain, in less restrictive service settings” than students who began later, the researchers found. The findings suggest that support services that help students remain in the general education classrooms may be “particularly effective” for students with learning disabilities.

A study of 26 states and their preschool programs finds that as of roughly two years ago, a mere 1 percent of Latino children and just 4 percent of black children in those states were enrolled in “high-quality” state-backed early-learning opportunities. That’s one main conclusion from a new report from the Education Trust, an education civil rights advocacy group. “Young Learners, Missed Opportunities: Ensuring That Black and Latino Children Have Access to High-Quality State-Funded Preschool” also says that “no state with a substantial percentage of black or Latino children provides high access to a high-quality program for both 3- and 4-year-olds.” In 11 of the 26 states, Latinos accounted for a smaller share of enrollment in these programs than their share of the state population as a whole. The same was true in three of those 26 states for black children. And having access means more than just having enough seats, the Education Trust stresses; it means having affordable, strong options without having to jump through unfair barriers.

Teenagers who read a lot of fiction do better on international reading tests, according to a recent study. But that doesn’t mean we can boost achievement just by encouraging kids to read more fiction. Fiction can’t be relied on to build the kind of knowledge students need to do well in school and in life. For that, they need systematic exposure to topics in history, science, and the arts, through a coherent curriculum that begins in the early grades. So whether or not there’s a “fiction effect,” we need to do more than encourage struggling readers to pick up a novel. We need to introduce them to the pleasures of reading by enabling them to listen to stories they can’t yet read easily on their own. We need to use the power of narrative to expand their knowledge of the world. And we need to prepare them to wrest meaning from text that doesn’t provide a storyline.

Millions of Americans struggle to read and it’s often because they have dyslexia. An estimated five to 20 percent of kids are dyslexic but some don’t realize it. These students’ dyslexia go unnoticed and they struggle in school with feelings of inadequacy. Others fight to get basic services required by federal law. There are countless stories of dyslexic students who feel frustrated by their struggles with reading and act out in schools. It’s so important for parents, educators and students to understand the signs of dyslexia and find ways to help. In this guide, you’ll learn about: How to recognize dyslexia in children, including multilingual English Language Learners; teaching techniques for educators; helpful technology aids; how parents can prepare for an Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting; and how adults with dyslexia managed their education experience.

Every time students pick up a new word or understand the deeper meaning behind a story, their passion for reading grows and prepares them for a future of rich literacy education. The end goal for educators is to instill passion in their students to keep reaching for books. However, getting students to that point can be difficult. No one learner is exactly like another, and every student comes with personal learning preferences and challenges, which pose a major hurdle when it comes to collective classroom learning. Research-based instruction strategies can help educators reach all of their students regardless of the differences among them. Not only do these strategies offer proven evidence for what does and doesn’t work, but they also propose ideas and tactics that educators may have never even thought of implementing in their classroom. We’ve compiled a list of research-based methods for maximizing literacy instruction.

A new study using sophisticated brain scans found an association between screen use and the development of young children’s brains, especially in areas related to language development, reinforcing the messages about minimizing screen time for preschoolers. So the message to parents, over and over and over, should not be either screens-are-bad, or you’re-a-bad-parent. The message should be: In the early years, you are so important, and good parenting involves being there, interacting, talking, playing, singing, asking and answering questions, and of course, reading.

Since 1952, we’ve convened a rotating annual panel of three expert judges, who consider every illustrated children’s book published that year in the United States. In 2017, we began partnering with the New York Public Library to administer the honor now called The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award. The judges select the winners purely on the basis of artistic merit. On the 2019 panel were Bruce Handy, a journalist and critic and the author of “Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult”; Jessica Cline, supervising librarian in the Picture Collection of the New York Public Library; and Jillian Tamaki, the Book Review’s By the Book illustrator and a past winner of the award. She is the author and illustrator of several graphic novels and the picture book “They Say Blue.”

EdReports, the nonprofit curriculum reviewer, is shining a spotlight on early reading—the group announced that it will start releasing evaluations of foundational phonics skills programs. The first set of reviews will be released in November. This is a departure for the organization, which historically has only reviewed reading and English-language arts materials that are meant to be used as year-long, comprehensive curricula. Along with ELA programs, EdReports also evaluates K-12 math materials and science materials for grades 6-8. These new reviews will focus on supplemental programs, designed to teach beginning readers how to crack the code that is written language. The list of K-2 materials currently under review teach alphabet knowledge, sound-letter correspondences, decoding written words, and other skills that help readers recognize the words on a page.

The bookmobile has a history of bringing the written word to people who can’t get to a library building. Queens has taken that ethos further, parking its mobile library at homeless shelters in the borough. As Denecia and her 9-year-old daughter Elianna browse through the rows of books in this special branch of the Queens Library, both begin to beam. She’s actually kind of “old school” when it comes to books, Denecia says. Ever since she was a kid growing up in Brooklyn, she found the local library a special place, an escape both from digital noise and some of the other tumult in her life. “I want them to be in awe when they go into the library, I want it to be an experience, so even if they go to a smaller branch, they’ll already have libraries on a pedestal in their minds,” Denecia says. Today’s library is particularly small. A combination of factors, including the loss of her job and the costs of finding child care, left Denecia and her two children, including her 6-year-old Elise, without a home over a year ago. Today the Queens mobile library has come to her, parking outside the family shelter where she and 254 other families now live.

The nation’s largest literacy celebration is about to get bigger. In an effort to attract more educators and boost school participation in Children’s Book Week, the Children’s Book Council and its charitable arm, Every Child a Reader, have developed a brand-new initiative designed to reach teachers, school librarians, and students. From November 4–10, the Fall Children’s Book Week will help extend the centennial anniversary celebration that kicked off this past spring.

Some people lost their minds on social media last week after a video with the ABC song went viral. They really did not like how “LMNOP” was sung, but there’s a good reason behind the slowdown.

It can be dangerous to draw conclusions on the basis of NAEP data. But the consistently bad news about reading scores—which have been stagnant since 1998—is a pretty clear indication we’re doing something wrong. Indeed, the last time NAEP scores were released, in April 2018, the board that administers the tests convened a panel of experts to discuss the lack of progress in reading. The consensus was that we’ve been teaching reading comprehension in a way that doesn’t correspond to scientific evidence. The experts explained that the vast majority of American schools approach reading comprehension as though it were a set of generally applicable skills, like “finding the main idea” and “making inferences”—the skills the tests appear to measure. In fact, cognitive scientists have found that the most important factor in comprehension is how much background knowledge readers have relating to the topic: the more you have, the easier it is to understand a text and retain the information. So if schools want to boost reading comprehension, especially for students who are unlikely to pick up academic knowledge and vocabulary at home, the key is to expand knowledge through a curriculum that includes lots of history, science, and the arts—the very subjects that are being marginalized to make room for more practice in comprehension “skills.” The reason many students score poorly on tests is not that they haven’t learned the skills; it’s that they can’t understand the reading passages in the first place.

The latest scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the nation’s report card, were just released—and things aren’t looking good for the country’s young readers. Reading performance has dropped significantly among both 4th and 8th graders since the last release two years ago. Just 35 percent of 4th graders are considered proficient by NAEP standards as of this year. That’s down from 37 percent in 2017. And 34 percent of 8th graders scored at the proficient level or higher for this year, down from 36 percent in 2017. But that’s only part of the story. In what should be very worrisome to literacy experts, teachers, and anyone concerned with inequity in education, the lowest performers showed the biggest declines. In fact, the highest-performing students were the only ones to hold steady over the last two years—all other groups did worse.

On October 30, 2019, federal officials released results from the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, in reading and mathematics for grades 4 and 8. Education Next asked a series of education-policy thinkers to share initial reactions to the results and thoughts about their implications. “Shame on us,” “Return to accountability,” “Focus on the low-performing students,” and other reactions to the NAEP results.

No one in children’s literature illuminates the interplay of heartbreak and hope like the two-time Newbery medalist Kate DiCamillo (“Because of Winn-Dixie”; The Tale of Desperaux”). Her latest novel, “Beverly, Right Here,” the third in a kind of trilogy that began with “Raymie Nightingale” and continued with “Louisiana’s Way Home,” may be her finest yet. [The story] sounds extremely sophisticated for a book aimed at fourth graders and up — kindness, brilliant color and scraps of poetry as salvation — and that’s the key to DiCamillo’s genius. She dares sophistication, trusting her readers to understand. She doesn’t sugarcoat, and she never compromises the truth.

The average eighth-grade reading score on a nationally representative test declined among public school students in more than half of the states, according to data released Wednesday by the National Center for Education Statistics, the research arm of the Education Department. The dismal results were part of the release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the “nation’s report card.” The test assesses a sample of fourth- and eighth-grade students — more than 290,000 in each subject in 2019 — every other year. Fourth-grade reading scores dropped in 17 states, with New Jersey having the largest decline, 6 points; only one state, Mississippi, improved, the data showed. The losses on the national exam were steepest for students who had been struggling the most, a segment that is the focus of many school reform policies. The Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of large urban school systems, said it saw a hopeful story in the new data. Over the past two decades, students in cities have moved closer to national achievement averages in both math and reading.

The average performance of the nation’s fourth and eighth graders mostly declined in math and reading from 2017 to 2019, following a decade of stagnation in educational progress, according to the results of a test released on Oct. 30, 2019. The one exception was fourth-grade math, with the average score rising by one point between 2017 and 2019. This was not the first drop in national test scores since the biennial test, called the National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP, was first administered in the early 1990s. Scores also dropped between 2013 and 2015. But federal statisticians described the current 2019 drop as “substantial,” particularly in eighth-grade reading achievement with 31 states posting lower scores. Demographic shifts were not responsible for the 2019 declines because test score drops were seen among white students. In fact, scores improved for English language learners, a category that includes many Hispanic students.