Abstract
When provided intentional access to text, and opportunities to read, fifth grade students in a rural, northeast, 50% free and reduced hot lunch school, exceeded growth targets on a nationally normed reading assessment. Thus, providing students with the “Right to Read” can significantly impact reading interest and achievement scores. This article is a researched-based study seeking to define explicit reading independence.
Introduction
Since the departure of a major industry and employer in 2000, a local school department has struggled to adapt to over the past twenty years. Within the past five years alone, reading achievement and students opting for post-secondary opportunities has steadily declined. This has occurred simultaneously with the department’s departure from a larger school district, along with several high-cost school reform initiatives. Pre-COVID, one-third of the school department’s students, grades 2-6, met or exceeded standards based on the State Reading Assessment. Only 40% of graduates sought post-secondary opportunities, including military and collegiate studies.
According to a Federal Court of Appeals decision in April 2020, it is incumbent upon state school boards and local school districts to provide opportunities to achieve basic skills, necessary for careers beyond compulsory schooling through qualified teachers and dedicated curriculums. We must surmise this includes engagement with text and multiple opportunities to demonstrate understanding for the betterment of the individual, the economic development of the community, the participation in our democracy, as well as the development of empathy, equity, and greater perspective of diverse individuals, communities, and as global citizens.
Instituting a “Right to Read” policy could be a deliberate intention to provide access to text and the engagement in wide and voluminous reading during the school day, and beyond; a commitment to every individual that will increase student achievement across all subjects, increase graduation rates, and increase the number of students seeking post-secondary opportunities following their tenure in a rural northeast school. In turn, the investment will serve as the catalyst for the school department to re-emerge as an academic leader and to re-envision the future of aits community.
Literature Review:
The International Literacy Association states in their Rights to Excellent Literacy Instruction (2019), “Student learning depends on the successful alignment of a complex system of stakeholders working cooperatively to strengthen teaching and learning practices and knowledge-building frameworks.” The implication here is that schools consider their curriculum and current practices to expertly provide opportunities for all students to read.
However, reading is a multifaceted skill. During the primary years, students “learn to read” which is matching letters and sounds to make words. Through the intermediate years, students “read to learn,” or develop text comprehension capacities. Initiatives and curriculum mandates can narrow the definition of “reading” to accuracy, rate, and self-correction - an accepted definition of “reading achievement” often found in failing and low-socioeconomic schools (Berliner and Glass, 2014).
National literacy leaders such as Kylene Beers and Bob Probst (2014), Kelly Gallagher (2010), and Penny Kittle (2016) have noted that the overall decline in reading interest begins during the middle years. Practitioners have long known the research from Guthrie and Wigfield (1997), to inspire increased, purposeful, independent reading in public schools. It’s no surprise to find that as students lack the practice or engagement with texts independently, or for extended periods