Giving Compass' Take:

• Amelia Harper, writing for Education Dive, examines how school leaders can elevate professional development and resources for reading instruction to increase literacy rates among students. 

• Can newer learning styles such as personalized and social-emotional learning contribute to providing students with a better foundation for learning how to read? 

• Read about the investment needed to increase teenage literacy rates. 

Many teachers have little training in reading instruction or have been incorrectly taught that reading is a natural process, with little background on the science or research behind literacy learning.   As school and district leaders assume the responsibility for providing that instruction to teachers, reading scores can improve.

Despite the importance of literacy in schools, many teachers surprisingly have very little training in the scientific basis for reading instruction. According to a 2006 report by the National Council on Teacher Quality, entitled "What Education Schools Aren't Teaching about Reading and What Elementary Teachers Aren't Learning," education schools generally score poorly on how well their courses teach components of the science of reading.

A 2018 report on reading instruction by the same organization indicates that the topic is still not a high priority for states. The report indicates that, while most states have teacher education program standards that include reading instruction, only 11 require elementary and special education teachers to demonstrate their knowledge on a licensing test.

Teachers need to be armed with adequate preparation and proper resources to do the work of reading instruction with a diverse student population.

This is where school superintendents and principals come in. District leaders need to assign the job of researching the best methods and curriculum for reading instruction for their districts to a person or team in their district.

They then need to provide sufficient professional development and resources to get everyone on the same page as students move from one grade level to another and, ideally, from one school to another within the district. The work is too important to ignore and will benefit the district as a whole in the long run.

Read the full article about student reading levels by Amelia Harper at Education Dive