California’s Reading Disorder

Now we know where we stand. California’s English-speaking students score within hailing distance of the national average in reading except when it comes to high school. Even when limited-English speakers are left out, ninth-, 10th- and 11th-graders statewide scored from 10 to 14 points below the national average, which is 50. These results should inspire a focused assault to correct the reading deficit, which will otherwise be a lifelong handicap.

Reading is best learned in the primary grades; by the time students reach high school they no longer get specific reading instruction and their teachers are not expected to teach it. So the state Department of Education, with support from the Legislature, needs to provide additional training and funds for intensive remedial reading through the 12th grade, as a start. As educators work to fix the problem, they also need to figure out what caused such a slide. Was it the state’s tilt away from phonics-based reading instruction, which has since been corrected? The lack of adequate textbooks and library books? The lack of credentialed teachers?

The results, from the Stanford 9 test released by the state on Tuesday, are better for English-fluent elementary students, who score near average not just on reading but on math and language skills.

Still to come are the court-delayed scores of students who are not fluent in English, scores that naturally are expected to be lower than those of pupils fluent in English. The rising or falling scores of these nonfluent-English students in the next few years will take the measure of Proposition 227, if it is upheld and traditional bilingual education is largely eliminated.

The court action also delayed the state’s promised district-by-district breakdown of results, which should come in a couple of weeks. Individual districts are expected to release results at least school by school, allowing parents to assess the quality of local public education and hold administrators’ feet to the fire. In lower-scoring districts like Los Angeles, the detailed results should give administrators ample ammunition to start the housecleaning needed at low-achieving schools.

California’s standardized test will get harder next year, when questions are added to reflect the state’s new and extremely rigorous math and reading standards. Scores might even fall, but only by embracing the results and fixing the failures can California public schools rub the tarnish from their reputation.