Academic Rationale
Every August or September, adolescent children in the United States hailing from all manner of socioeconomic and ethnicity groups begin the next school year, yet significant numbers of them "do not read and/or write at levels needed to meet the demands of the 21 st century." 1 The passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001 was billed as a panacea to the achievement disparity. NCLB was passed based upon the premise that all children can learn but despite their ability to learn many were not performing or achieving at proficient levels and thus were being left behind academically. 2 NCLB passed as a reauthorization of the original Elementary Secondary Education Act of 1965 3 and the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994. 4 Now, ten years later, states have put in place state standards, created criterion-referenced state assessment tests to measure achievement in relation to the standards, and hired highly qualified staff. Data is now being disaggregated by racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender subgroups. In theory, all students should be achieving Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) by the year 2014.
Why then, according to the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics have the national NAEP reading scores for eighth graders in public schools remained relatively static since the advent of NCLB? (Average score in 2002 was 263 and in 2009 was 262). In addition, the percentage of eighth-grade students reading "below basic" on the NAEP reading assessment from 2002 until 2009 has remained at 26%. 5 Why is over one quarter of the eighth-grade students continuing to be left behind in terms of reading level? In addition the lack of reading growth is not commensurate with the increase in per pupil expenditures. Again, according to the NAEP, current expenditures per pupil rose from $9,309 in 2001-02 to $10, 441 in 2007-08. 6 This obvious reading deficit dilemma leads one to ask: With a decade's worth of emphasis, why are not more children reading at a Basic level? I am frustrated with the one-size-fits-all model of instruction that has become the norm during the NCLB reign of conformity yet has achieved little to no marked student improvement. It is apparent to me, as a teacher of reluctant readers, I need to pursue another avenue if I want to effect authentic academic change.
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