reading proficiency | dr. p.l. (paul) thomas

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) has released a report on literacy that opens with yet another example of misrepresenting NAEP reading scores to manufacture a reading crisis for political gain: “Two-thirds of America’s fourth and eighth graders are not proficient in reading.”

The report is an embarrassing recycling of the media misinformation campaign about reading in the US.

In fact, most of the footnotes cite news articles (including the Washington Times, a conservative outlet that lacks credibility) and conservative think tanks (ExcelinEd, Fordham). [1]

Notably missing are citations to scientific research on reading or credible analyses of NAEP data.

Responses are needed and can be sent to Literacy@help.senate.gov by April 5, 2024.

Here is my response:

I am very disappointed in this report, notably since it starts with misinformation about NAEP: https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/literacy_report.pdf

The report is deeply flawed and relies on misleading and false journalism (footnotes) to support misleading and inaccurate claims:

How Media Misinformation Became “Holy Text”: The Anatomy of the SOR Movement

ILEC Response: Mainstream media coverage of reading proficiency, teachers of reading, NAEP scores, and teacher preparation

Good intentions are not enough and government policy on education has done more harm than good since A Nation at Risk. We can do better, and we should. But we must start with accurate claims and credible solutions.

Big Lies of Education: Reading Proficiency and NAEP

Big Lies of Education: A Nation at Risk and Education “Crisis”

Stop using misinformation and crisis rhetoric for political gain [2] and genuinely address what students and teachers need to be successful.

US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

[1] Analysis of 33 footnotes for the report:

Preventing a Lost Generation: Facing a Critical Moment for Students’ Literacy

Senator Bill Cassady, MD, Ranking Member

US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

NAEP/PISA Data/ Government Reports

National Achievement-Level Results, National Assessment of Educational Progress (Oct. 24, 2022), https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/nation/achievement/.

National Achievement-Level Results, The National Assessment of Educational Progress (Oct. 24, 2022), https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/nation/achievement/.

Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States, National Center for Education Statistics (Jan. 2020), https://nces.ed.gov/programs/dropout/index.asp.

Thomas G. Sticht, Vice President, Basic Skills in Defense, Human Resources Research Organization (June 1982), https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED237776.pdf.

Scores Decline in NAEP Reading at Grades 4 and 8 Compared to 2019, National Assessment of Educational Progress (Oct. 24, 2022), https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/reading/2022/

NAEP Report Card: 2019 NAEP Reading Assessment, National Assessment of Educational Progress (2019), https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/reading/2019/g12/.

NAEP Long-Term Trend Assessment Results: Reading and Mathematics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (Sept. 1, 2022), https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2022/.

Program for International Student Assessment 2022 Results, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (Dec. 5, 2023), https://www.oecd.org/publication/pisa-2022-results/.

AEP Report Card: Reading State Achievement-Level Results, National Assessment of Educational Progress (Oct. 24, 2022), https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/states/achievement/.

Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction, National Reading Panel (Apr. 2000), https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf.

National Achievement-Level Results, National Assessment of Educational Progress (Oct. 24, 2022), https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/nation/achievement/.

NAEP Long-Term Trend Assessment Results: Reading and Mathematics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (Sept. 1, 2022), https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2022/.

Joint Dear Colleague Letter, U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (Jan. 8, 2014), [LINK OMITTED, apparent error]

Resource on Confronting Racial Discrimination in Student Discipline, U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (May 2023), https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1585291/dl?inline.

Think Tank/Advocacy Reports

Donald J. Hernandez, Professor, Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation (2012), https://assets.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/AECF-DoubleJeopardy-2012-Full.pdf.

Anthony P. Carnevale et al., Director and Research Professor, Recovery: Job Growth and Education Requirements Through 2020, Georgetown Public Policy Institute – Center on Education and the Workforce (June 2013), https://cewgeorgetown.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Recovery2020.FR_.Web_.pdf

Economic Impacts of Dropouts. National Dropout Prevention Center (n.d.), https://dropoutprevention.org/resources/statistics/quick-facts/economic-impacts-of-dropouts/.

Erin Fahle et. al, Research Scientist, The First Year of Pandemic Recovery: A District-Level Analysis, The Harvard University Center for Education Policy and Research & The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University (Jan. 2024), https://educationrecoveryscorecard.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ERS-Report-Final-1.31.pdf.

Why The Three-Cueing Systems Model Doesn’t Teach Children to Read, Excel in Ed (2022), https://excelined.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ExcelinEd_FactSheet_ThreeCueingDoesNotTeachChildrenToRead.pdf.

2023 Voice of the Superintendent Survey Executive Brief, EAB (Feb. 16, 2023), https://pages.eab.com/2023SuperintendentSurveyExecutiveBrief.html.

Daniel Buck, Soft-on-Consequences Discipline Is Terrible For Teachers, Thomas B. Fordham Institute (Feb. 9, 2023), https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/soft-consequences-discipline-terrible-teachers.

Max Eden, The Trouble with Social Emotional Learning, House Committee on Appropriations – Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Apr. 6, 2022) AEI, https://www.aei.org/research-products/testimony/the-trouble-with-social-emotional-learning/.

Chronic Absenteeism: 2017-2023, Return2Learn Tracker (Oct. 23, 2023), https://www.returntolearntracker.net/.

Media

Micaela Burrow, Army Qualification Test Scores Plummeted Further In 2022, Daily Caller. (Sept. 16, 2022). https://dailycaller.com/2022/09/16/army-qualification-scores-plummeted-2022/.

April Rubin, ACT Test Scores Fall to Lowest Levels in 32 Years, Axios (Oct. 11, 2023), https://www.axios.com/2023/10/11/act-test-scores-lowest-2023.

Matt Barnum & Kalyn Belsha, Blizzard of State Test Scores Shows Some Progress in Math, Divergence in Reading, Chalkbeat (Oct. 2, 2023), https://www.chalkbeat.org/2023/10/2/23896045/state-test-scores-data-math-reading-pandemic-era-learning-loss.

Linda Jacobson, Science of Reading Push Helped Some States Exceed Pre-Pandemic Performance, The 74 Million (Oct. 17, 2023), https://www.the74million.org/article/science-of-reading-push-helped-some-states-exceed-pre-pandemic-performance/.

Liana Loewus, Data: How Reading Is Really Being Taught, Education Week (Dec. 3, 2019), https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/data-how-reading-is-reallybeing-taught/2019/12.

Sarah Schwartz, Teachers College to ‘Dissolve’ Lucy Calkins’ Reading and Writing Project, Education Week (Sept. 5, 2023), https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/teachers-college-to-dissolve-lucy-calkins-reading-and-writing-project/2023/09.

Sarah Schwartz, Reading Recovery Sues Ohio Over Ban on ‘Cueing’ in Literacy Instruction, Education Week (Oct. 18, 2023), https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/reading-recovery-sues-ohio-over-ban-on-cueing-in-literacy-instruction/2023/10.

Susan Ferrechio, Teachers Unions Worked with CDC to Keep Schools Closed for COVID, GOP Report Says, The Washington Times (Mar. 30, 2022), https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/mar/30/republican-report-shows-teachers-unions-helped-cdc/.

Sarah D. Sparks, Two Decades of Progress, Nearly Gone: National Math, Reading Scores Hit Historic Lows, Education Week (Oct. 24, 2022), https://www.edweek.org/leadership/two-decades-of-progress-nearly-gone-national-math-reading-scores-hit-historic-lows/2022/10.

Arianna Prothero, Student Behavior Isn’t Getting Any Better, Survey Shows, Education Week (Apr. 20, 2023), https://www.edweek.org/leadership/student-behaviorisnt-getting-any-better-survey-shows/2023/04.

Sarah Mervosh, Who Runs the Best U.S. Schools? It May Be the Defense Department., The New York Times (Oct. 10, 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/10/us/schools-pandemic-defense-department.html.

Commercial Blogs

TPT Survey Report: What 2,000+ Teachers Think About SEL, Teachers Pay Teachers (May 2022), https://blog.teacherspayteachers.com/tpt-survey-report-what-2000-teachers-think-about-social-emotional-learning/.

[2] See:

Despite F Ratings, Dyslexia Charter School Has Gotten Repeated State Approval

A school for students with dyslexia continues to stay open despite two F grades from the BESE, Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The Louisiana Key Academy is run by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and his wife, Laura. Both are physicians. Neither are specialists in reading disorders, although they have a child with dyslexia.

Reading Disabilities: Focus on Public Schools NOT School Choice!

Some Big Lies of Education start with journalists (even at the biggest of media outlets).

“One of the most bearish statistics for the future of the United States is this: Two-thirds of fourth graders in the United States are not proficient in reading,” wrote Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times.

Kristof’s piece in 2023 can be traced back to a similar claim by Emily Hanford in 2018: “More than 60 percent of American fourth-graders are not proficient readers, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and it’s been that way since testing began in the 1990s,” including a surprisingly ineffective graphic:

The student reading proficiency Big Lie grounded in misrepresenting or misunderstanding NAEP is likely one of the most complicated Big Lies of Education.

In media and political rhetoric, first, the terms “reading proficiency” and “grade level reading” are commonly jumbled and used inappropriately as synonyms.

Achievement levels such as “basic” and “proficient,” used in NAEP for reading, are misleading and complicated for most people not familiar with technical terminology.

NAEP “basic” is approximately grade level (although even that claim is problematic since no standard exists in the US for “proficient” or “grade level”), and “proficient” on NAEP is high:

Rosenberg, B. (2004, May). *What’s proficient? The No Child Left Behind Act and the many meanings of proficiency.* Washington, DC: American Federation of Teachers. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED497886.pdf

NAEP testing and data are normative, measuring what a general population is achieving (not individual students), and as noted above, NAEP “proficient” is aspirational.

State accountability testing is measuring individual achievement, and states tend to use “proficient” as a measure that falls in the “basic” range of NAEP, suggesting that state-level proficient is “grade level” approximate or at least what most student should be able to achieve at that grade [1]:

Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto NAEP Scales, 2007–2019

Hanford’s and Kristof’s Big Lie, then, is a combination of blurring NAEP achievement levels with grade level reading achievement and manufacturing a reading crisis with that misinformation.

Ironically, NAEP grade 4 reading scores for a decade show that 2/3 of students are reading at or above grade level, the inverse of the false crisis claims of the media:

The Big Lie about reading proficiency and NAEP help perpetuate the Big Lie about educational crisis, but it also masks the more complicated truths: the US has no standard metric for assessing the national reading achievement of students, and focusing on manufactured reading crises distracts reformers from addressing what we can identify—inequitable access to reading proficiency among minoritized and marginalized populations of students.

I recommend the following to understand the essential failure, the Big Lie, of using NAEP to manufacture a crisis around reading proficiency in the US: