If I could change one thing in 2012 to improve the quality of life for every American, it would be to ensure that every child in the nation left school literate. By literate, I mean that every child possessed the ability to read, write, and speak in a manner that allowed him or her to succeed in school, pursue dreams, and contribute to society. You may ask, "Why literacy?" The fact is that the ability to read and write underpins all other learning in school and beyond. Through reading and writing children develop the ability to think deeply and critically about subject matter. If a child cannot read and write well, then that child's ability to learn history, government, civics, biology, chemistry, physics, and every other subject we expect children to learn before leaving high school, becomes exceedingly difficult. Sadly, 75% of eighth graders today don't read well enough to comprehend their text books , and 26% of entering ninth graders fail to graduate from high school.
Low literacy is the number one reason students fail to graduate and is linked to a plethora of undesirable outcomes such as smoking, drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, unemployment, prison, and homelessness. The negative economic consequences of our failure to teach every child to read and write well, to both the individual and the country as a whole, are almost incomprehensible. Consider, for example, the economic toll our prison system places on our society. We spend about $35,000 per year per prisoner in our overcrowded prison system. Estimates are that about 90% of the prison population has low literacy skills. In short, crime looks much more attractive when a person has low literacy and thus, poor job prospects. Low literacy is rampant among individuals living in assisted housing and receiving food stamps. We cannot simply say to these individuals, "Go get a job." What job can they actually get? Certainly jobs that pay above minimum wage require literacy.
The biggest tragedy is that it doesn't need to be this way. There is clear science to inform schools about how to best teach every child to be a reader and writer. This science has demonstrated that even children who have a genetic predisposition for reading problems (i.e., dyslexia) will learn to read and write well when appropriate instruction is provided. Likewise, children who enter school ill-prepared for school because of poverty and/or second language learning also achieve grade level expectations (or better) when provided scientifically aligned and well delivered instruction. So why do we continue to be in this mess? The answer is complex and complicated, but at the core, the answer is that, as a nation, we have yet to implement in most of our schools what science tells us is necessary to ensure that every child leaves school literate. Currently, there is a 30 year gap between what is known about teaching literacy to all children, and what typically happens in schools. Nationally, we do a poor job teaching teachers how to teach literacy before they enter the classroom and then provide little support to them for upgrading their practice to align with the science of literacy instruction, leaving teachers to do the best they can, but not knowing how to do it better. This situation must change (see www.literatenation.org for a call to action).
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My 11 year old son finds them too attractive. So we time-rationed them. After a few months of being bored and driving us nuts, he finally started reading for amusement. First casually, and then increasingly seriously. About 2 years ago he still was reading "Captain Underpants" or something like that. After burning through the fantasy / adventure books in our local library I am trying to move him to some historical novels (he wants lots of action). He just finished reading Dumas Three Musketeers and is reading Ben Hur now (all the full classic editions, not kids simplifications).
Once you get them reading, you can't stop them. I have to go to the library weekly to keep him in books.
School can try, but it'll never replace home; the more it tries, the more it becomes clear that the joy, solidity, direction, and support that family provides cannot be duplicated; the more it tries, the more it pulls kids further away from family and in the end is counterproductive.
And why don't you tell us what the main "research findings" are that you talk about? Phonics? Whole language? A combination? You could have summarized these "findings" so we have some idea what you're talking about.
The democratic culture of equality has percolated through to the schools. Thus non-compliance prevents effective teaching, especially of the lower classes whose condition is aggravated by repressed anger consequent of domestic cultural and emotional deprivation.
The way forward is democratization of the schools.
Folk like you, on high, dishing out fine prescriptions are outmoded. Don't work no more!
Get off your high horse and start thinking about eroding the power of all education providers from government and their cohorts of experts, unions, teachers, academics and parents.
Empower students!
If they don't learn it, the consequences are likely to be dire.
It is better to learn from others mistakes, than from your own - or provide the lesson to others of what not to do.
When I didn't want to do things the way my bosses wanted to do them, I quit before they fired me. But I had built up enough skills and expertise that I found a reasonable consulting job.
Students need to know that the only way they are going to survive as workers is by adding considerably more value than they cost and by being able to find / create another position if they need / want to. There is nothing about democratization here.
I am trying to deal with the social reality that we face. You are saying how things should be. Well, they aren't that way.
There were generations that said the people should not have this or that. And now they do. Things change because the social pressure becomes so great. Now it is the turn of schools. They are dysfunctional.
Where there is mass non-compliance, there are two choices. Subordination using force. or consent using democratic systems. Subordination is not possible. That leaves democratisation.