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Building Reading Proficiency at the Secondary Level: A Guide to Resources

Building Reading Proficiency at the Secondary Level: A Guide to Resources

Struggling Secondary Readers: A Closer Look

For secondary-level students in grades seven through twelve, the social and economic consequences of not reading well can be cumulative and profound: the failure to attain a high school diploma, a barrier to higher education, underemployment or unemployment, and difficulty in managing personal and family life. Years of failing at what is deemed a hallmark of intelligence and worth can also leave struggling readers with emotional consequences, such as anxiety and low self-esteem, that affect personality and interpersonal relationships. These effects within and beyond the classroom walls show that by the secondary grades educators can no longer defer solutions to future development or instruction.

The Scope of the Problem

While many readers make gains through grade 8, many then fall behind from grades 8 to 12. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which provides longitudinal achievement data for students through grade 12, showed slight increases from 1994 to 1998 in reading performance across grade levels. Still, more than 26% of students at grade 8 and 23% of those who had not left school at grade 12 failed to reach "Basic Proficiency" in reading, meaning they lacked even the "partial knowledge and skills" that are fundamental for their grade level. As with prior test administrations, a disproportional number of students in culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), English as a Second Language (ESL) and low-income populations fell below Basic Level proficiency at both grades 8 and 12 (Donahue, Voelkl, Campbell, & Mazzeo, 1999).

National longitudinal studies show that approximately 75% of those with reading problems in third grade still experience reading difficulties in the ninth grade (Francis, Shaywitz, Stuebing, Shaywitz, & Fletcher 1996; Shaywitz, Holahan, & Shaywitz, 1992). Students who experience reading difficulties in the early grades often suffer what has been called the "Matthew Effect" (Stanovich, 1986), a gap between good and poor readers that widens through the grades. Mikulecky (1990), for example, found that a group of secondary students two or more years behind their peers in reading ability were differentially affected by their tendency to avoid reading. These students read very little during or outside of school. Over the two-year period of the study, their reading comprehension performance actually declined.

Consequences of Being a Struggling Reader

By the secondary grades, struggling readers have little confidence in their ability to succeed in reading and little sense of themselves as readers (Collins, 1996). Guthrie, Alao, and Rinehart (1997) noted an "eroding sense of confidence" in these students. They are acutely aware of their reading problems (Wigfield & Eccles, 1994) and likely to suffer serious psychological consequences, including anxiety, low motivation for learning, and lack of self-efficacy.

Emotional and Psychological Consequences

Many struggling secondary readers experience social anxiety from reading aloud in the classroom (Kos, 1991) and from repeated assignment to remedial reading programs (Collins, 1996). Their personal anxiety is associated with fears of lacking functional skills and of attaining future employment or success (Amman & Mittelsteadt, 1987; Kos, 1991).

To save face, they may attribute their reading failure to such external factors as task difficulty, noise, interference, and unfair teachers. Yet what may be regarded as inappropriate attributions may be appropriate for instruction that is not meaningful, relevant, or at the readers' instructional level. For struggling readers who attribute failure to their own lack of ability, further effort is seen as futile, which damages the trust between student and teacher (Wallace, 1995).

Behavioral Consequences

Although a relationship between reading difficulties and problem behavior has been well documented (Kos, 1991; McGee, Share, Moffitt, Williams, & Silva, 1988), the nature of that relationship is unclear. In a longitudinal study of New Zealand children with reading disabilities through age 13, McGee, et al. (1988) found behavior problems to be a result of reading difficulties rather than a cause. Others (Fergusson & Lynskey, 1997) have found no relationship, and specifically no relationship with hyperactivity (Chadwick, Taylor, E. Taylor, A. Heptinstall, & Danckaerts, 1999).

In summary, struggling secondary readers are characterized by the consequences of years of reading failure. Gaskins (1997) notes that these consequences may be suffered even by those students who are reading at grade level after successful remediation.

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