Indiana high schools work on test scores by getting to the root of the matter - reading comprehension:
Organizers of the Adolescent Literacy Conference hope to provide new ideas and recommit teachers to boosting students' basic skills. The three-day summit ends today at Southport Sixth Grade Academy in Perry Township.While Indiana students' reading skills rate slightly above national averages, many teachers say they have only begun to address a persistent literacy lag. In 2003, the most recent year available, a third of Indiana students rated below a basic level on the Grade 4 reading test of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. In Grade 8, 23 percent were below the basic level...
If students have difficulty with reading comprehension, it affects their performance on all subjects on standardized tests, from reading to math, several educators said.
One of the issues is the problem of boys, and teachers are wracking their brains for books that boys will enjoy. Might I suggest (and I'm not the only one to do so) a complete turn away from the modern young adult sob stories, and a return to non-fiction, or science, or the heroic young adult's literature of the past?
Posted by kswygert at June 9, 2005 12:48 PM