The war between phonics and whole word reading methods that began in the 1950s is continuing full force into this new century. My recent web research shows that the debate is far from settled and, in fact has become politicized with the phonics crowd characterized as “right wing” and thewhole word, holistic side as “left wing” http://www.thehistoryof.net/history-of-phonics.html. The stone throwing and categorizing by the two sides does little to solve the problem at hand: teaching kids how to read.
Today children learn reading in the public schools primarily through the whole word approach, with the occasional phonics drill thrown in when the administrators aren't looking. Where does that leave reading performance? According to the latest assessment statistics from the US Department of Education, on average students in 12th grade posted a slight gain in reading skills in 2009 over 2005 – by three points. However, a shockingly large percentage of students are performing below the proficient level in all three grade levels assessed.
Level | 4th Grade % | 8th Grade % | 12th Grade %* |
Advanced | 7 | 2 | 5 |
Proficient | 24 | 28 | 33 |
Basic | 34 | 43 | 36 |
Below Basic | 34 | 26 | 26 |
None of the above | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Total | 100 | 100 | 100 |
* Note that only 11 states participated in a pilot program in 2009 leading to these "trend" scores. It is significant that although the number of students participating in the pilot program was much fewer than the other grades, the results remain consistent.
Go to http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/achievall.asp to find out what reading tasks were measured and the skills required for the reading assessment levels.
How do we make strides in seriously improving skills? Early intervention when kids are learning to read makes sense to me.
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