USA TODAY International Edition
America’s kids risk declines in reading skills
Reading brings out the competitor in 8- year- old Uriah Hargrave. The second grader at Eaton Park Elementary in Vermilion Parish along Louisiana’s southwest coast was thrilled to return to in- person learning in January. One of his favorite things is the Accelerated Reader program in which he wins points for the books he reads.
“I like to read because I like to take AR,” Uriah said. “You get more ( points and prizes) every time. ... Yesterday, I read a big ol’ chapter book about animals with kids.”
His points pay off in extra free time outside and “Star Bucks” that he can use to buy erasers and spy pens at the school store. Plus, his reading helps advance his class’s gingerbread cutout on the Candy Land game bulletin board in the school hallway. He proudly pointed out where his class was in relation to the other second grade classes.
Yet too many children may be falling behind in the reading game during the pandemic, teachers and experts say. The USA TODAY Network visited classrooms in different states to see how schools are adapting as the teachers’ axiom about students learning to read in early grades so they can read to learn the rest of their lives has never been put to a greater test.
“Learning to read is so challenging,” said Laura Taylor, a professor of educational studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. “It’s a long process that takes years.”
Lost time from when schools shut down, inconsistent schedules since then, the limitations of teaching over videoconference or even in person with masks and social distancing – these handicaps are likely to have a greater effect on children learning to read than those at other grade levels, said Anjenette Holmes, a professor at the University of Louisiana- Lafayette’s Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong Learning.
A midyear report from the DIBELS ( Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) early reading assessment shows almost half of students in kindergarten and first grade scored within the lowest category in early literacy skills, an increase of almost two- thirds from the same point last year.
The analysis, covering approximately 400,000 students in more than 1,400 schools from 41 states, shows that compared with last year, twice as many Black kindergarten students are at greater risk of not learning to read.
In Uriah’s district, standardized tests administered at the start of the school year revealed how much had been lost from shutting down schools in March. Among kindergartners, the tests showed 47% were at grade level, a drop from 77% the previous year. In first grade, the numbers fell from 90% to 66%. Second graders fell from 81% to 58%. Educators grapple with how to teach new grade- level concepts when students are still playing catch- up.
Vermilion Parish’s answer is for elementary school teachers to integrate skills students missed with “mini- lessons” sprinkled throughout the year. For example, when first- graders get to new content that requires knowledge of a kindergarten concept they missed last year, the teacher does a mini- lesson before starting the new skill.
At Eaton Park Elementary, teachers carved out an extra half hour from the school day to devote to reading to help make up for the learning losses.
Phaedra Simon, a single mom of three from Opelousas, Louisiana, can attest to how challenging it is for kids to learn new material when they’re still mastering foundational skills.
Simon worked hard to keep her children — ages 9, 8 and 7 — on track when they started the year virtually in the St. Landry Parish school district. She even quit her job to give her youngest the attention he needed.
As soon as the chance came to return to in- person learning, she seized it, even as she worries about their health. “I’m not trained to teach them how to read,” Simon said. She’s continued working with them, reading at home together every night. “I’m still nervous, waiting to see their new report cards,” Simon said.
‘ Roll with it’
Nearly a year into remote learning, instilling good learning habits remains a daily mission for Pam Bowling, a first grade teacher at Allen Elementary School in eastern Kentucky. She peppers every virtual lesson with positive narration – “Good job! I hear reading books being opened!”
“Make sure we’re sitting up,” Bowling trilled at the start of her daily 9 a. m. reading session. “I want you to be comfortable, but I don’t want you to be too comfortable, right? We don’t want to fall asleep. We want to make sure we’re sitting up, paying attention, just like we were at school.”
“I’ve got ’ em with hair that looks like they’ve been shot out of a cannon,” joked Bowling, an educator for 25 years. “They’re getting up, and their hair is every which way. And you can tell they’re sleepy.”
Even for veterans such as Bowling, teaching students to read over a videoconference call is an unprecedented challenge.
“I don’t think you can make the same connections, give the same in- the- moment feedback,” Taylor said.
Bowling, 50, has been teaching from her dining room. “I was very skeptical ( of remote learning),” Bowling recalled. “I said, ‘ I don’t know how we’re going to read through the camera. I don’t know how that’s going to translate.’ ”
Bowling said she tries to remember the setup is only temporary.
“It’s just swallowing the fact that ‘ Hey, this is what I’ve been dealt with,’ ” she said. “It might not be the best, it may not be the easiest approach, but – and I say this almost every day to my parents and kids – we’re just going to roll with the hand we’re dealt.”
When Bowling and her kids eased back to in- person classes on a hybrid schedule, a litany of health and safety routines was added to her charge.
“We’re just going to roll with it,” she said.
Learning behind a mask
When schools shuttered in March, Sydney Tolbert was a preschooler at the Libertas School of Memphis, starting to make strides in reading, her mother said. “She was just right there. And then all of a sudden, we just stopped,” recalled Stephanie Tolbert, who felt relief that Libertas was one of the few public schools in Memphis that offered in- person classes beginning in the fall.
“I knew that if we could get her back in school, that she would just take off,” Tolbert said. “And you could just see her. I watched her just, like, flourish. It was awesome.”
In Sydney’s multigrade classroom, teacher Toni Sudduth, a classroom assistant and the 15 students practice social distancing and wear masks even when outside.
It’s a challenge for students to watch how their teacher’s mouth moves while sounding out letter combinations and words. Sudduth wears a clear face shield, so she can pull down her mask behind the shield to demonstrate how a sound is made.
Sounding out words is one area where online learning platforms provide an advantage, said Emily Wakabi, a reading interventionist at Libertas. “I used to cue ( students) every time, like, ‘ Watch my mouth,’ ” she said, “and that’s not helpful this year.”
Encouraging conversation
Kristin Bosco, a first grade teacher at John Sevier Elementary in Maryville, Tennessee, has 17 students in her virtual class.
While the children read a passage about a king, seeking words with the “ng” sound, Bosco flipped through her Zoom panel to see each face to make sure everyone paid attention.
Between tasks, the children talk with each other, which Bosco said is important for their social growth. Learning this way has given her a window into the children’s home life that she didn’t always have. She hears about – and often sees – the children’s pets and learns when a parent switches jobs.
“Allowing children to talk more is really important,” Holmes said. “Teachers are trained to get children talking to each other. They’re not learning that original, authentic language otherwise.”
‘ Expectations are no different’
At the start of the school year, third grade teacher Lisa Gemar was asked to be one of 11 virtual teachers needed for children who didn’t want in- person learning at Northside Elementary School in the Clinton, Mississippi, school district. It was an adjustment, but she was up to the challenge.
“The expectations are no different,” Gemar, a 10- year teaching veteran, said of leading a class in a Zoom session. “I’m still able to pick up on what they’re struggling with, and we’ve built a really great relationship even virtually through a screen.”
The transition to virtual learning was eased by Clinton’s eight- year track record as a one- to- one district, meaning every student gets a laptop or tablet.
In the Madison County School District north of Jackson, Mississippi, technology issues, such as a lack of internet access, have meant more students need additional intervention, said Christyl Erickson, the district’s curriculum director.
The experts fear the pandemic will widen achievement gaps.
“Knowing what we know about how education inequity works, I would think it’s more likely that we’re going to see larger gaps between schools, between districts, because of those different kinds of financial resources,” Taylor said.
If early readers get the resources in time and attention that they need, Holmes said, she’s optimistic they can overcome the pandemic’s challenges.
“Children are strong and can bounce back quickly, sometimes a lot faster than adults,” Holmes said. “With consistent routines in place, whether learning at home or at school, I have hope that they will catch up.”