Reading wars continue into 21st century

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 12^th 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.

Illiteracy Definitions Vary, May Understate Problem in U.S.

Today, when I was posting my first tweet, I found a new website called Room to Read (http://www.roomtoread.org).  This non-profit organization builds libraries and promotes literacy in countries around the world. I was impressed with the group's accomplishments and noble and beneficent efforts, but what are the U.S. illiteracy rates? What about adults?

I discovered that the meaning of literacy -- and conversely illiteracy -- is as varied as the organizations dealing with the issue.  The United Nations defines illiteracy as "the inability to read and write a simple message in any language."  When this standard is applied, the illiteracy rate in the US is only 1%, according to an article on the infoplease.com website.  Too good to be true? I think the definition is deceivingly simplistic and misleading.

Statistics from a 2003 study published by The U.S. Dept.of  Education, and included in a January 2009 article on livescience.com by Robert Roy Britt, show that 14% of adults lack "basic prose literacy skill" that renders them unable to "read a newspaper or the instruction on a bottle of pills."


According to literacy.org, the site for the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, there 40 million illiterate and low-literate adults in this country.  That translates to 13% of the population, given a figure of 312 million. However, I found no definition on their site or other details that back up the

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) provides this definition:  "Literacy is the ability to use printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential."  Their 2003 assessment showed that 30 million -- or 14% -- of the adult population had only the very basic level of literary skills.

After researching, I finally find two sources that agree.  The remaining question, though, is what do we do to improve the 14% adult illiteracy rate in our country?