Over the past decade, Tennessee has seen steady growth in math, science, and social studies scores. Those gains have been accompanied, as in many states, by rising high school graduation rates. But all is not well in the Volunteer State. “Reading remains an area where we are putting in substantial efforts and not seeing corresponding improvement,” laments this impressive report from the state’s education department.
English language arts (ELA) is the only subject tested on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) for which less than half the state’s students earn a “proficient” score. State officials are rightly alarmed by the spiral of failure that sets in when children are far behind in reading by the end of the third grade: Only one-third of Tennessee third graders who scored “below basic” on the TCAP in 2013 improved to “basic” two years later. A mere 3 percent reached proficiency by fifth grade. Neither is third-grade proficiency sticky. Twenty percent of students who scored “proficient” in third grade dropped back down to “basic” by fifth grade; more than half of the “advanced” third graders fell back below that level two years later.
So what’s the matter with Tennessee? The state sent literacy experts from TNTP into more than one hundred elementary classrooms across the state. They identified a “concerning trend” that sheds light on the problem: “The reading instruction that students are receiving in early elementary grades is not sufficient to carry them into the later grades where rich vocabulary, a broad base of knowledge, and critical thinking skills become ever more crucial." Teachers in the critical early grades are spending considerable time teaching students word recognition skills, “but they are far less often helping students connect decoding skills to the act of true reading.”
The report’s sophisticated view of reading and due diligence in investigating classroom practice is spot-on, smartly distinguishing between “skills-based reading competencies” and “knowledge-based reading competencies.” The former is “necessary but not sufficient for early literacy development; later reading comprehension and academic success depend mostly on strong knowledge-based competencies.” Two-thirds of K–2 lessons observed by the TNTP team focused on phonics and other word recognition abilities. “Most lessons did not provide students with opportunities to use their newly acquired skills in reading or writing, and less than 10 percent included an explicit link to drawing meaning from words.” Moreover, lessons were “rarely structured to expose students to complex texts and their vocabulary, ideas, and content knowledge.” In grades 3–5, students spent relatively little time reading during school “literacy blocks,” and most instruction focused on mastery of individual skills in isolation rather than deep comprehension of texts and their content.
Tennessee is surely not the only state to struggle to move the needle on reading. Change the name on this report to almost any other state and its diagnosis would survive the trip across the border virtually unchanged. The recommendations too: The report calls for a new statewide literacy coaching model and teacher preparation with “full alignment to skills- and knowledge-based competencies.” Other states should follow suit—including bringing the TNTP team that contributed to the Tennessee report in for a visit.
Tennessee hopes to get 75 percent of its third graders proficient in reading by 2025—an ambitious but not outlandish goal. This report offers encouraging evidence that the state has a coherent plan to get there: a clear-eyed view of reading, enhanced teacher training, persistence, and patience.
Lord knows we’ve tried everything else.
SOURCE: “Setting the Foundation: A Report on Elementary Grades Reading in Tennessee,” Tennessee Education Department and Ready to Read (February 2016).
