Everything You Know is Wrong: Reading Edition
Originally published August 23, 2023. Republished with permission by Paul Thomas, author of the blog Radical Scholarship. https://radicalscholarship.com/2023/08/23/everything-you-know-is-wrong-reading-edition/
As a teenager in the 1970s, I was turned on to The Firesign Theater, and in those days, it was listening to their extended faux radio skits on vinyl (or as we said then, “albums”). One of their album titles lingers in my mind often: Everything You Know Is Wrong.
In fact, thinking about that title inspired me to post a couple polls on social media:
The first set of questions speaks to how we are often trapped in presentism, especially in the stories told by the media and messages perpetuated by politicians.
As I document in my reading policy brief and my book on reading wars, there has not been a single moment in the history of the US since at least the 1940s that we have not in the media and by politicians lamented low reading proficiency in students; as well, no standardized measurement of reading proficiency has ever been substantially different than now.
As with all measurements of student learning, reading proficiency has never been good enough and reading test scores have always correlated strongly with poverty, race, and gender
Therefore, crisis rhetoric around reading is another manufactured crisis that is dismantled once we step back for historical perspective.
The second poll exposes how powerful media misinformation is, and how common it is for a claim to get into the public rhetoric without every being interrogated.
The correct answer is “unknown,” although 30-35% not at grade level proficiency can be viewed as a credible estimate.
60-70% is definitely wrong, but represents the power of media messaging (based on not understanding NAEP). In 2018, Emily Hanford established this false claim: “More than 60 percent of American fourth-graders are not proficient readers, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and it’s been that way since testing began in the 1990s.”
Then in 2023, Nicholas Kristof jumped into the long line of journalists who simply repeat this misinformation without ever checking the facts: “One of the most bearish statistics for the future of the United States is this: Two-thirds of fourth graders in the United States are not proficient in reading.”
We in the US love criticism of schools, students, and teachers, and making a negative claim about any of those will likely go unchecked.
Notice anything familiar about Susan O’Hanian’s experience at the Educator Writers Association (EWA) conference in 2003?:
Kati Haycock, though, was the one who really came up to the table for No Child Left Behind, reiterating these points:
- Colleges of education are still teaching reading the way we thought it should be taught ten years ago.
- There’s a “scientific” way to teach reading and teachers should be trained to do it.
The Press: All the News about Public Schools They Feel Like Printing
The rhetoric and claims of those who want and need an education crisis are consistent, reaching back, again, to the 1940s, but also as recent as just 20 years ago when NCLB legislated “scientifically based” instruction and codified the National Reading Panel (NRP).
The media has taken a term, “proficiency,” and carelessly misinformed the public (because most journalists have little or no background in education, testing, statistics, etc.).
NAEP uses “proficiency” for achievement well above grade level, as is explained at the NAEP website (see also for a full explanation Loveless, 2023; Loveless, 2016):
NAEP student achievement levels are performance standards that describe what students should know and be able to do. Results are reported as percentages of students performing at or above three NAEP achievement levels (NAEP Basic, NAEP Proficient, and NAEP Advanced). Students performing at or above the NAEP Proficient level on NAEP assessments demonstrate solid academic performance and competency over challenging subject matter. It should be noted that the NAEP Proficient achievement level does not represent grade level proficiency as determined by other assessment standards (e.g., state or district assessments). See short descriptions of NAEP achievement levels for each assessment subject.
NAEP “basic” is closer to what states have established as “grade level proficiency”; however, to further complicate the matter, the US has no standard definition for “grade level proficient,” and most people have never confronted that we should actually be using “age level proficiency.”
Thus, 60-70% is, in fact, absolutely not how many students are not reading at grade level. If we trust NAEP basic, it may be fair to say that about 30% or so are not at grade level.
But the most accurate claim we can make is that we have no real idea because we have failed to create the structures needed to know.
Why?
To be blunt, media and politicians benefit from constant education crisis, and if we actually implemented effective education reform, the profit of perpetual reform would disappear.
More historical perspective: None of the reforms have worked over the past 40 years of high-stakes accountability.
None.
The manufactured crises were all lies, and the solutions had little to do with education.
Reading crisis?
Nope.
Once again, the crisis rhetoric is a lie and the reforms benefit almost anyone except students and teachers.
Thanks to media and political misinformation, everything you know is wrong.
Paul (P. L.) Thomas, Professor of Education (Furman University, Greenville SC), taught high school English before moving to teacher education. He is author of How to End the Reading War and Serve the Literacy Needs of All Students.
Debra Rich is a Reading Recovery Trainer, Comprehensive Literacy Model Trainer, Comprehensive Intervention Model Trainer, and Assistant Director of the Comprehensive Literacy Center at Saint Mary’s College of California. She currently serves as the President of the Reading Recovery Council of North America, is a member of the Reading Recovery Executive Council, and is on the leadership committee for LitCon. Deb is a member of the Iowa Association of Area Education Agencies (IAAEA) Executive Board of Directors and is President of the Central Rivers (Iowa) Area Education Agency Board of Directors which provides educational services to 53 public and 18 non-public school districts in north-central Iowa. Deb has served as a building principal and held central office roles in multiple districts as a K-6 language arts coordinator and a K-12 curriculum director. She has been a regional K-12 literacy consultant, Reading Recovery, and classroom teacher. Deb is committed to equity and inclusion and actively advocates for access to literacy as a fundamental right for all children.