In 1982, students entering college averaged 493 on their SAT scores in mathematics. That same year, they averaged 504 on verbal skills. Twenty years later, the good news is that the average SAT math score is 23 points higher at 516. The bad news is that the average verbal score is again at 504 in 2002. The College Board claims that the scores show thatincreased national emphasis on math education is paying off. Verbal scores, however, demonstrate that a renewed focus on reading, writing, and grammar is needed. (2002)
We have to worry in education about the see-saw effect. If policymakers are not pitting one subject against another, they may be concentrating on one age group at the expense of another. All the more reason that educators must take the long-range view in balancing student needs as they implement much needed national initiatives.
This issue on “Reading and Writing in the Content Areas” reminds us that in the midst of a national effort to ensure that all children are able to read by the end of 3rd grade, we must not overlook the needs of students in 4th grade and beyond. The Nation's Report Card tells us that, nationally, 37 percent of 4th graders cannot read at a basic level—that is, they cannot read a short paragraph of the type one would find in a children's book. Only 40 percent of high school seniors are proficient or better in reading skills, that is, able to demonstrate their comprehension of challenging subject matter (Donahue, Finnegan, Lutkus, Allen, & Campbell, 2001).
Being a good reader is crucial to today's adolescents, who, as Richard Vacca (p. 8) tells us, will need to read and write more than adults have at any other time in human history. Not learning to read is linked with dropping out of school and even with becoming involved in substance abuse and other criminal activities, according to reading expert Reid Lyon (2002). Yes, we must start early to prevent reading problems, but 4th grade is no place to stop.
For many years we've heard of the 4th grade slump, that difficult time in a student's life when Mom and Dad stop reading aloud storybooks (if they ever did) and the 9-year-old encounters nonfiction for the first time. At a recent Reading Summit, reading expert Catherine Snow outlined the “challenges of 4th grade”: new subject matter demands; the vocabulary load of textbooks; the more complex syntax and spelling of language; a widening achievement gap; and intensified standardized testing. Ironically, the current climate of accountability can have a damaging effect on the teaching of reading. Preparation for the tests can take away valuable time for reading instruction, independent reading, and “extended discourse,” a time when students and adults have rich, deep conversations and students are exposed to new concepts and rarely used words.
In this issue, Educational Leadership authors explain how and why we must continue to teach reading and writing in the upper grades. They talk about how to find the time and effort it takes; the necessity of incorporating reading and writing in every content area, including science, math, social studies, and literature; how to coach students and model strategies; and the need to emphasize lifelong learning. Such explicit strategies as questioning, summarizing, comprehension monitoring, and using graphic organizers can help readers learn to retain, organize, and evaluate the information they read (p. 92).
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 is just not going to happen. (cited in Farber, 1999)
He and the other authors in this issue describe how to make literacy learning happen in 4th grade and beyond.
