Myth #4 -- We used to do a better
job of teaching children to read
As the song goes, "The good old
days weren't always so good." We have, in fact, never done a better
job of teaching children to read than we do today. The bad news is,
we've never done a worse job either. We are basically just as successful
today as we have always been (which is to say, not very successful).
Nothing illustrates this better
than the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the NAEP).
This assessment has been given to children across the country aged 9, 13,
and 17 since 1970. Student performance at those three age levels has not
changed substantially in over 30 years. Other investigations have
found that literacy rates have not really changed in this country since
World War II, and some studies suggest that literacy rates were actually
worse before the war.
The literacy rates really have not
changed substantially in recent history, but the demand and need for literacy
has increased markedly. Literacy is essentially a prerequisite for success
now, and in the future, the ability to read will be an increasingly indispensable
skill.
We clearly do not need to get back
to the old ways of teaching children to read -- the old ways were really
no better than (and some would argue, "no different than") the current
ways. Relatively recent research has given us great insights into
why some children have difficulty learning to read, and the next frontier
in reading education is to help teachers understand and apply that research
information.
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to 10 Myths of Reading Instruction
