Not Zero: Why Adolescent Reading Interventions Should Start Where Students Are
Too many reading interventions send adolescents back to the beginning—as if a thirteen- or seventeen-year-old were encountering print for the first time. But adolescent readers who score below Proficient are not at zero. When we begin where students actually are, we align practice with theory—and give adolescents the forward momentum they deserve. read more
When Aspirational Benchmarks Become Public Verdicts: Revisiting NAEP Proficiency
What does NAEP Proficiency actually represent? Is it intended to describe what is developmentally appropriate for most eighth graders, or does it represent a more ambitious target? Ambitious goals are essential—they push systems forward. But when aspirational benchmarks are misread as diagnostic norms, high expectations become public condemnation. read more
From Reluctant to Engaged: Open-Access Text Sets That Transform Adolescent Readers
While pundits paint dire pictures of 2024 NAEP results for 8th and 12th grades, the reality is more nuanced: many teens simply haven’t read enough to develop automatic, proficient reading. Current interventions mistakenly attribute problems to decoding rather than insufficient reading practice, then compound the issue by providing tedious texts and activities that further disengage read more
