Adolescent Literacy: The Case for Using Data-Based Individualization to Improve Student Outcomes
Background: Literacy is a skill necessary for various aspects of life from work to entertainment. Over the last two decades, among school aged students, the nation’s literacy proficiency rates have remained low and stagnant. Federal and state lawmakers have sought to ameliorate the literacy issue by requiring training in reading instruction for early elementary teachers—those teaching kindergarten through third grade. Of concern are the adolescent students—those promoted beyond third grade—when basic literacy skills instruction fades from the curriculum. Purpose: The goals of this study were (a) to identify the extent to which adolescent literacy is an issue in a large, urban charter school district in Texas, (b) to examine which grade and campus had the highest proportion of students not meeting grade level standards, and (c) to examine the interaction of demographic identifiers (ethnicity, gender, disability status, English learner status, and economic status) on adolescent literacy. Methods: This quantitative study used descriptive and group comparison design to determine the extent to which adolescent literacy is an issue in this large, urban, charter school system in Texas. Campus level data for performance of students in grades 4–8 on the 2021 State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Reading assessment was collected from publicly available archival sources. The first analysis examined the percentage of grade 4–8 students in the overall district who did not meet standards on the 2021 STAAR Reading exam. The second analysis considered the proportion of students in each grade and campus who did not meet grade level standards on the 2021 STAAR Reading exam. The third analysis examined the interaction of ethnicity, gender, English learner status, disability status, and economic status on 2021 STAAR Reading exam performance. Results: The results generated by these analyses indicate adolescent literacy is an issue for this large, urban, charter school district in Texas. The analysis revealed poor performance on the 2021 STAAR Reading exam across all grades, campuses, ethnicities, and genders regardless of English learner, disability, or economic status. Results were indicative of a Tier 1 problem. Conclusion: Use of state reading assessment results to make instructional intervention decisions is not effective or targeted enough for adolescents with decoding, word attack, and fluency skill deficits. Systemic improvement of student outcomes requires ongoing professional development and coaching for teachers to implement the data-based individualization (DBI) process. The training of teachers to use DBI will provide teachers with a feasible and sustainable framework for collecting and analyzing the granular level of data necessary to pinpoint deficits and select interventions to address students’ specific basic literacy skill gaps.
Education, Reading, Education, Secondary
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