AV#276 - A 2024 literacy update, and a must-see documentary: The Right to Read

     If I had only known. Last winter I presented a 30-page report on the state of reading in Colorado. If I had seen The Right to Read by then, I would have given a shoutout to this amazing 2023 documentary. I had hoped “After the READ Act – Beyond third grade, how well do our students read?” would have an impact. The literacy results I reported were alarming. I sought a greater focus on reading skills for all of K-12 in our state. “After the Read Act” gave evidence that at least 70,000 students in grades 4-11 are struggling to read well.   

The Right to Read, Director, Jenny Mackenzie; Executive Producer, LeVar Burton, 2023.          https://www.therighttoreadfilm.org/watch-the-film

    But this 70-minute film, subtitled, "The greatest civil rights issue of our time," provides the inspiration I failed to offer. (More in Addendum A.)

2024 Literacy Update – Did Not Yet Meet Expectations - Again, over 70,000 students

 WE CANNOT LET THIS CONTINUE.

2023 - After 3rd Grade			2024 Update
Reading & Writing - Did Not Yet Meet Expectations
CMAS  ELA	%	# of students	%	# of students*
Grade 4	14.5%	8,063	14.5%	8,078
5	7.9%	4,494	8.2%	4,588
6	10.3%	5,734	10.2%	5,565
7	13.2%	7,126	12.8%	6,826
8	16.5%	8,561	18.1%	9,110
9 - PSAT	21.2%	12,391	18.2%	10,435
10 - PSAT	22.1%	12,429	20.3%	11,562
11 - SAT	28%	15,663	30.6%	17,326
		74,461**		73,429
*http://www.cde.state.co.us/assessment/cmas
**This total far exceeds the 51,294 students in 4-12 on a READ plan that year.[i]

   Though not inspirational, AV #276 gives a brief update from my Reading Report.[ii] One more attempt to call attention to the issue. This box appeared on page one of the Executive Summary. It highlighted the staggering number of students in grades 4-11 (after the READ Act’s work is done), who scored at the lowest level possible - well below grade level - on our state literacy assessments in 2023.

   2024, update: again, over 70,000 students.    

   Doesn’t this cry out for attention? Is it not tragic that we pass along thousands of students from one grade to the next, fully aware that we have not been able to help them tackle this most fundamental skill? Isn’t it our responsibility to do far more to provide teachers and schools the skills and resources to address this disturbing picture of the literacy skills of so many students?

   MOST DISTURBING OF ALL: See below on the ever-rising percentage of students of color who Did Not Meet Expectations. Data, I believe, all in support of the film’s theme: literacy is a civil rights issue. 

   My Reading report stressed that we must go well beyond the K-3 efforts of the READ Act to meet this crisis. Test scores show the READ Act has led to progress in our elementary schools. In 2023 and 2024 we now see fewer 5^th grade students performing at the lowest level. That is positive. Less than 9% Did Not Meet Expectations on the state’s reading and writing assessment. Good news on the other end, too: last spring 47% of 5th graders Met or Exceeded Expectations—the highest percentage for any grade.

   However, from that point on, in our middle and high schools, we see the ever-rising number of students who score at the lowest level on the state’s assessments of reading & writing.

Colorado – All Students – grades 4-11 – rising percentage scoring at lowest level on literacy

Colorado – Students of color - grade 6-11 -

 It is especially alarming to see how pronounced this trend is for students of color.

Grade 7 – “only” one in five Did Not Yet Meet Expectations. By Grade 11 – nearly one-half.

CMAS (6-8) and PSAT/SAT (9-11) - % Did Not Meet Expectations

	6	7	8	9	10	11
Black/African American	17.4	20.0	23.9	27.7	33.1	45.7
Hispanic/Latino	16.9	21.9	26.2	31.6	35.0	50.7
White	5.7	7.0	9.4	8.6	9.8	16.9

 

                    

State-wide averages not persuasive? Here are 26 schools, from 15 districts.

 

   Some shrug at state-wide averages. “Not my district. “Not my school.”            

   Does this bring the issue home? In at least 10 districts most Hispanic students in 11^th grade scored Did Not Yet Meet Expectations on the state’s literacy assessment in 2024.

1.      Fort Morgan – 69.6%

2.      Montezuma-Cortez - 66.7%

3.      Adams 14 – 64.3%

4.      Colorado Springs – 64%

5.      Aurora Public Schools – 63%

6.      Trinidad – 62.5%

7.      Westminster – 62.3%

8.      Denver Public Schools – 56%

9.      Roaring Fork – 52.8%

10.   St. Vrain – 52.4% 

   The list below shows a majority of either Black or Hispanic students, sometimes both, performing well below grade level in schools and districts across the state. On tests, let’s recall, taken one year before these students graduate next spring. Well-prepared? Meeting our Graduation Guidelines?

 

2024 scores - Over 50% in Grade 11 Did Not Yet Meet Expectations on SAT - Reading & Writing

 

		Black	Hispanic[iv]
Adams 12	Thornton High School		66.2
Aurora Public Schools	Aurora Central H.S.	75.0	74.1
	Aurora West College Prep Academy		63.6
	Gateway H.S.	62.7	73.3
	Hinkley H.S.	71.9	69.0
Bennett 29J	Bennet H.S.		68.8
Cherry Creek School District	Overland H.S.	50.8	60.5
Colorado Springs District 11	Mitchell H.S.		74.8
	Nikola Tesla Education Opportunity Ctr		89.7
Denver Public Schools	Abraham Lincoln H.S.	78.9	80.4
	Bruce Randolph H.S.		62.5
	Dr. MLK Jr. Early College		58.0
	George Washington H.S.	71.2	61.3
	John F. Kennedy H.S.		55.9
	Manual H.S.		58.1
	Montbello H.S.	61.5	70.0
	North H.S.		58.7
District 27J	Brighton H.S.		57.4
Harrison 2	Harrison H.S.		58.5
Jefferson County R-1	Alameda International Jr/Sr H.S.		74.0
Roaring Fork Re-1	Glenwood Springs H.S.		53.7
St. Vrain Valley School District	Frederick Senior H.S.		51.5
Thompson R2-J	Loveland H.S.		56.9
ONLINE SCHOOLS
Byers 32J	Astravo Online Academy H.S.		62.5
District 49	GOAL Academy	70.6	72.8
Douglas County Re-1	HOPE on-Line Learning		72.5

   Appalling? Stunning? Outrageous? Unacceptable? If not a crisis, how would you describe it?

   Let’s agree that the READ Act is just a start. It identifies and serves tens of thousands of boys and girls we classify as significantly reading deficient. Its work makes a difference. But when we see the results for 70,000 students in grades 4-11, isn’t it obvious we need to do much more?

**

Addendum A - The Right to Read (film)

(con’t from page one) - 

   The documentary features the work of Kareem Jabbar Weaver, a teacher and parent in Oakland, CA. His passion is inspiring. We see him work with his local NAACP to make literacy a priority in the community. They petition the Oakland school board. They bring change. The "science of reading" comes to the schools. We follow a remarkable first0grade teacher as she implements the new approach, leading to dramatic improvement for her students. We hear from several figures who have studied and worked on our reading crisis. It is the most compelling film on education I have seen in a decade.

Weaver quotes from Frederick Douglass, born into slavery, who wrote: “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”          And from Maya Angelou: “The elimination of illiteracy is as important to our history as the end of slavery.”

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

  I beg of you – please look at the two-minute trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptUYVHDeHOw.

  To whet your appetite, a few quotes from the film.

Kareem Jabbar Weaver: “When I started teaching in Oakland, there were only two kids in my class of 35 who could read.”                                                                      

   “This is a civil rights issue. We’re really trying to figure out how to get Oakland kids to read.”

   “It is a national problem that cuts across demographics, but it’s painted as a minority issue… Kids of all races are struggling to read. This issue is who has the resources to deal with it.”  

   “The question is: do we have the political will and do we have the moral courage and fortitude to use literacy as a vehicle to include all?”

   “Literacy is our greatest civil right. If you can’t read, you can’t access anything in our society.”

   “This is social justice.” 

   Emily Hanford, writer, “How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong”: “We have a lot of people who struggle to read… if you look at the basic data, why aren’t we screaming and yelling about this?”

   Dr. Kymyona Burk, past State Literacy Director in Mississippi, where reading scores have greatly improved: “We want to make sure that all students have the opportunity to be with a teacher who has learned the science of reading….”

   “It has been said that illiteracy is one of the most solvable issues of our time. We have the research. We have the practice. We have to do what’s best for children…”

Addendum B - NAEP data

 

   Throughout the film we see grim statistics on the percentage of students who are not proficient readers, using NAEP data from California, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Here I add Colorado NAEP results from 2022. We hear doubts as to how well our state assessments capture the reading and writing skills of our students. I have expressed my own questions about the use of the PSAT/SAT in all Colorado high schools,[v] such as those on the pages above. But NAEP, called “the nation’s report card,” is harder to dismiss. And for 4^th graders in Colorado in 2022, its results: 38% Proficient/Advanced, were actually lower than our CMAS score: 44.1% Met Expectations.[vi]

 

NAEP* READING SCORES, GRADE 4 - National, data from the film,

and Colorado, data from CDE - https://www.cde.state.co.us/assessment/conaep

 

	From the film –          NAEP 2019 data: National	My addition – using NAEP 2022 data:   Colorado
Proficient level	Data shows only 33% of 4th graders score Proficient or Advanced; 66% score below Proficient. Stated:  “We are failing 2/3 of our children.”	38% scored Proficient or Advanced – [the lowest % at this level in Colorado since 2007, when 36% scored Proficient or better.] Meaning over 60% - 3/5 of our 4th graders – were not reading at a Proficient level. Percent scored Proficient or better: White – 49% Black – 21% Hispanic – 20%
Basic level	Stated:  “One-third of our 4th graders cannot even read at a Basic level. That is a lot of kids.” “… even more shocking, nearly one-half of our kids of color cannot read at a Basic level.”	69% scored Basic or better. 31% scored below Basic, so nearly one-third of 4th graders were not reading at a Basic level. Percent scored Basic or better: White – 80% Black – 49% Hispanic – 49% Meaning roughly one-half of students of color were not reading at a Basic level.

*National Assessment of Educational Progress

 

 Endnotes

---

[i] From CDE:

Grade	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Count on a READ Plan	12,708	10,548	2,157*	6,747	6,371	5,132	3,676	2,524	1,411

*Indicates the cohort related to the interruption in the collection due to COVID.

[ii] REPORT – “After the READ Act - Beyond 3^rd grade, how well do our students read?” (Feb. 2024)   https://anotherviewphj.blogspot.com/2024/02/

[iv] An obvious question: are students learning English as a second language taking the SAT as juniors? And shouldn’t this be a factor when looking at these SAT results? Yes and Yes. I do see why we make students unprepared for an assessment such as the SAT in reading and writing endure this exam. Look at the numbers. So absolutely, the scores recorded for Hispanic students must keep in mind these results for NEP and LEP students:

 -For NEP (Not English Proficient) students - 90% (2,567 out 2,852) scored Did Not Yet Meet Expectations.

 -For LEP (Limited English Proficient) students - 99% (911 out of 923) scored Did Not Yet Meet Expectations.

(CDE adds this point of clarification: “not all NEP/LEP students are Hispanic, and not all Hispanic students are/were NEP/LEP.”)

[v] AV#233 - “The PSAT and SAT do not work well for perhaps 25% of our high schools.”  AV #234 – “Accountability: Besides PSAT/SAT, how else can high schools measure their performance?”  (Jan. 2021) Another View - https://anotherviewphj.blogspot.com/

[vi] Colorado Department of Education, 2022 CMAS scores, https://www.cde.state.co.us/assessment/2022_cmas_ela_math_statesummaryachievementresults.