A Progress Report on Reading: Signs of Promise, and Problems

Dear Extra Credit :

One issue that I have been concerned about in this county has been reading. Although a large proportion of the school kids are reading by first grade, there are a number who are not and who need special attention to make sure they get just as good an education.

Is reading instruction now based on phonics, or are the schools still muddling through, counting on the parents of most of the children to have taught the children before classes begin?

Lew Gollub

Bethesda

I have asked Karin Chenoweth, my distinguished predecessor as Montgomery Extra columnist, to answer your excellent question, since she has made a study of reading instruction:

I'm too old to say, "I want to give a shout out to all my peeps," so I'll just say hello and that I hope all my old Homeroom readers miss me as much as I miss them.

There's good news to tell about reading in Montgomery County. Many more third-grade students are meeting state reading standards than their older brothers and sisters did at their age. For example, in 2003, only 57 percent of third-grade students met state reading standards. In 2005, 79 percent did, with some dramatic increases among African Americans and Hispanics, poor students and students with disabilities. (To see these and other statistics, go to http://www.mdreportcard.org .) This progress points to some of the things Montgomery County is doing right. It is spending more time on reading and writing. It has gotten teachers additional training in how to teach reading. And it has upped the sense of urgency to make sure all students learn to read in the early elementary grades.

So that's the good news, and it is quite good indeed. But there's some bad news as well.

The progress is not consistent across all the schools, and as you go up the grade levels, progress slows. At the fifth-grade level there's been some improvement, but not as much as at third grade. In middle school there has been basically no improvement and, depending on the grade and group, even a little decline.