Why it is critical to broaden our
focus beyond K-3
Education Week has published a series of articles showing why schools
must expand their focus to address the reading difficulties of our older
students. This has been a theme of Another View, beginning with “After
the READ ACT - Beyond third grade, how well can they read?” (Feb. 2024). Many
in Colorado understand the need. Will the state, districts, and charter schools
decide to move “beyond third grade”?
There are strategies and efforts in place (see Georgia, New Mexico, and Virginia) to meet the needs of middle and high school students. Let’s learn from them.
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Part 2 - AV #298
will examine the most recent report from the Colorado Department of Education
on the number of students in grades 4-12 still on a READ Plan. Close to
50,000 in 2024, CDE reports. My study will show it was probably well over
65,000 students. If – I hope when
– Colorado makes a concerted effort to meet the needs of over 12,000 4th
graders still on a READ Plan, I believe most of these boys and girls
will be able to read close to grade level - five years later - by the
time they enter high school. We see no such effort at present. If there were,
we would not be seeing so many freshmen (164 at Westminster High, well over 100
at Aurora Central and Rangeview High, nearly 100 at Montbello and North High)
still on a READ Plan. |
Education Week introduced its series this way. Bold mine throughout
What Happens When Middle and High Schoolers Still Struggle
to Read?
by Sarah Schwartz & Kaylee Domzalski, Dec. 18, 2025
Teachers and experts alike say that many older students still struggle with the basics. They have trouble breaking down multisyllabic words, for instance, or can’t read with fluency. But by the time teenagers reach middle and high school, reading-support services have often dried up. Many secondary schools don’t have the specialized staff, materials, or dedicated time necessary to help older children who would benefit from more intensive intervention.
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“… experts say that
states wanting to support students after 5th grade can’t just
extend existing laws onto middle school. Older readers need a tailored
approach with different methods and material than younger students in the
early grades. Some states and districts are now training teachers to support
older readers.” Sarah Schwartz - video introduction. |
In a new series of stories (published Nov. 24, 2025), Education Week reporters spotlighted schools and districts that are at the forefront of a movement to bring this kind of reading support to the middle and high schoolers who need it.
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I send a huge THANK YOU to Education Week for allowing me to quote from seven articles, and especially to its reporters for their exploration of this issue. For access to Education Week articles – see https://www.edweek.org/help/faq#access-edweek |
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Excerpts from five of these articles.
1. Secondary Students Are Struggling With Reading, Too. A Look at the Landscape, by Stephen Sawchuk
[Education Week hosted a conference] about adolescent literacy across the content areas. We got a lot of … enthusiastic
responses … Many of our attendees’ students
were so far behind that these educators weren’t even thinking about the nuances
of teaching a sonnet vs. a scientific paper. They just wanted to get them to be
able to read at all.
[This article examined four themes, based on Education Week’s
survey of about 700 educators.]
1. Many educators say middle and high school students
struggle with reading.
2. Lack of motivation and limited
fluency top educators’ diagnoses of the root cause.
3. Teachers receive minimal training
on helping older readers catch up.
4. Supports for reading intervention
decline after elementary school.
2. State Reading
Laws Focus on K-3. What About Older Students Who Struggle?, by Evie Blad
… advocates have set their sights on improving instruction for older students, who are often left out of the conversation….
The swell of
attention for younger students is understandable. Students who can’t read by
3rd grade are more likely to struggle academically down the
road, drop out of high school, and have poor adult outcomes. But when students don’t
meet that goal, struggles with literacy compound as they older, leaving them
further behind with fewer supports and teachers who are less equipped to
address their fundamental gaps in understanding.
In a nationally
representative poll … 58% of
educators surveyed said that a quarter or more of their middle and high school
students struggle with basic reading.
3. 4 Tips for Supporting Older Struggling Readers, From Researchers & Experts, by Sarah Schwartz
Most intervention programs … are aimed at elementary school children. But
many older readers have trouble with basic skills, too—and teachers often
say they don’t have the resources or knowledge base to support these students.
“It’s not that teachers don’t know their content,” said Katie Keown, a literacy director at the nonprofit educational
consulting group Student Achievement Partners…. It’s that secondary teachers
are trained to be English/language arts specialists, she said, with the
assumption that students will come to them knowing how to read. That’s not
always the case.”
[The article examines four “guiding principles”
for this work.]
4.
Teachers Need Help
Reaching Teens Who Missed Basic Reading Skills. Can PD Help?
by Caitlynn Peetz Stephens
[After spending five years “focused on
improving literacy achievement for its youngest students,” the school district
in Marietta, Georgia, “confronted the problem of older students who still
struggle to read.”]
“We still had around 30% of kids who weren’t
reading at or above grade level.... We said, ‘You know what? This isn’t OK,’” said Charles Gardner, Marietta’s deputy superintendent. “We wanted
to make sure we had an opportunity to catch them up because we know that …
when they get to high school they’re potentially falling further and further
behind in all kinds of content areas because of reading deficiencies that have
gone either unidentified or unaddressed, or both.”
5. How One District Is Getting Secondary Teachers Up to Speed on Reading Support, by Caitlynn Peetz Stephens
Nationwide, much of the focus of the “science of reading” movement has
focused on foundational skills usually taught in the earliest grades. But
older readers who haven’t mastered those foundations are at risk of falling
further behind as they attend classes that increasingly rely on complex texts
to build their knowledge base.
That’s where the Marietta district’s training comes in. It’s
partnering with a PD provider to supply middle and high school educators to
learn how to teach basic reading concepts in middle and high school classrooms
in age-appropriate ways.
Two other Education Week
articles on this theme – from 2024
1. Reading Interventions for Older Students May Be Missing a Key Component, by Sarah Schwartz, Oct. 30, 2024
“Let’s just be honest.
We are still sending cohorts of kids to middle and high school who have been
denied access to literacy in their K-5 environment,” said literacy
consultant Kate Crist.
Middle and high schools aren’t designed to teach basic reading skills,
and the infrastructure that fosters this work in elementary schools—reading
interventionists on staff, dedicated periods for reading support services—is
much less common in upper grades.
“How do we begin to create
an ecosystem in 6-12 for reading instruction like we have in K-2?” Crist
asked. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/reading-interventions-for-older-students-may-be-missing-a-key-component/2024/10
2. What Teachers Say They Need Most to Help Struggling Teen Readers, by Sarah Schwartz, Nov. 20, 2024
[Teachers] want more training on how to grow
these students’ reading skills … — but more than half say their schools don’t
have policies to support these goals.
“Many respondents indicated that they are sounding the alarms based
on their experience day in and day out in the classroom, and yearning for
administrator support,” said Rachel Manandhar, an education specialist and
literacy interventionist at Berkeley High School (Calif.).
… teachers of grades 3-8 reported that 44 percent of their students
always or nearly always faced challenges reading the content in their classes.
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LINKS TO
VIDEOS IN THE SERIES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkAfQITH5n8 |
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AI Search – What are states doing to address the reading challenges of
older students? (3/1/26)
“States are increasingly expanding their ‘science of reading’ initiatives beyond the early grades to address persistent reading challenges in 4th through 8th grade. While early literacy (K-3) has been the focus, recent legislation in 2024 and 2025 has begun targeting upper elementary and middle school through updated screening tools, specialized teacher training, and intensified interventions.” (Education Commission of the States +1)
“Here is what states are doing to address reading challenges after third
grade:
“States are moving away from only screening for early phonics skills and
are now requiring screenings for older students to identify gaps in vocabulary,
fluency, and comprehension. (Education Week)
- Virginia: Implemented a new screener for 4th-8th
grade students in 2025 to identify those at basic or below-basic
reading levels for immediate intervention.
- Indiana: Enacted a 2024 law requiring a literacy screener for students in grades 4–8. (National Conference of State Legislatures +3)
“Recognizing that older struggling readers often have gaps in
foundational skills, states are encouraging or requiring specific
interventions.
- Individual Reading
Plans: States are expanding
mandatory individualized reading plans to include students in 4th-6th
grade who have not reached proficiency.
- Vocabulary/Morphology
Focus: Interventions are shifting
to focus on decoding multisyllabic words and vocabulary development, as
opposed to just phonics, to help older students understand complex
texts. (Education Week +4)
“States are requiring that 4th-8th grade teachers, not just K-3 teachers,
receive training in the ‘science of reading’ to handle reading
deficiencies.
- Middle School Training: New Mexico requires ELA and
special education teachers in grades 6-12 to complete a 55-hour
course on fundamental literacy concepts.
- Literacy Specialists: States are requiring
schools to hire reading specialists to support older students, such as Virginia’s
mandate for specialists for grades 6-8.
- Content-Area
Literacy: Training is expanding to include
middle school content teachers (science, social studies) to help them
instruct students on reading within those specific subjects. (Education Week +4)
“Leading States: Mississippi. Known for its ‘reading
turnaround,’ the state has sought to expand its rigorous, evidence-based reading
interventions and teacher training up to the 8th grade.”
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