Social Promotion Begins at Home (Reprint)

Governor Scott Walker (R-WI), in his education policy entitled Education for the 21^st Century High Standards and Accountability, wrote the following: Today, 33% of Wisconsin fourth graders cannot read at even a basic level ― proof that Wisconsin’s education system is failing our children. To turn things around, we have to put an end to social promotion for students who cannot read at the end of third grade. In fourth grade, reading becomes the primary tool for gaining knowledge in every other subject. To borrow a phrase used by others, fourth graders are no longer “learning to read,” they are “reading to learn.”

I selected this particular section of Governor Walker’s policy because it represents the prevalent political belief by democrats and republicans, concerning students’ reading achievement: Most political leaders in both parties believe students are failing to read because our public schools are doing a poor job of educating them. This belief suggests the incorrect notion that students’ achievement in reading, or any other content area for that matter, is solely the responsibility of schools. Political leaders, who make this argument, do not take into account the myriad of problems that affect students’ achievements that are external to the control of schools and school districts. In a future blog, Achievement, I will address several of these problems. In today’s blog, however, I will discuss the major problem, external to schools, which affects learning to read in the primary grades (first, second and third) ― Emergent Literacy.

From the moment a child is conceived, nature (the natural abilities of the child) and nurture (the child’s quality of life) are the two factors that determine the child’s achievement and success in life. Children born under the best conditions of nature and nurture are delivered into the world as happy, healthy babies, with average to above average ability to learn.  Children born under less fortunate conditions of nature and nurture will enter the world with physical and/or mental problems that impairs their ability to learn.

Children begin learning before birth. As they develop, during the nine months of pregnancy, they begin to recognize the sounds of familiar voices. Most children, for example, are born with the ability to recognize their mother’s voice. Others are born with the additional ability to recognize the dad’s voice and/or the voices of other relatives. In other words, the baby’s achievement before birth is determined by the nature and nurture of parents and child.

Language development begins at birth, as parents and others engage children in speaking and listening. Emergent literacy, which in the majority of households begins at birth, takes language development a step further. It introduces children to language as they appear in books. It teaches them that symbols can be read as language; symbols can be written as language; alphabets are symbols that have particular sounds associated with them. By the age of three, for example, most children whose parents immersed them in emergent literacy are fully aware that placing the letter “b” in front of “at” describes an animal that is different than the animal described by placing the letter “c” in front of “at,” which is quite different from the animal described by placing the letter “r” in front of “at.” They’ll probably roll on the floor with laughter if, after placing “b,” “c,” and “r” in front of “at,” you asked them to place an “f” in front of “at” and name the animal it describes.         

A joint project by Boston University Medical Center, Erikson Institute, and Zero to Three made the following conclusions: Early language and literacy (reading and writing) development begins in the first three years of life and is closely linked to a child's earliest experiences with books and stories. The interactions that young children have with such literacy materials as books, paper, and crayons, and with the adults in their lives are the building blocks for language, reading and writing development.

Recent research supports an interactive and experiential process of learning spoken and written language skills that begins in early infancy. We now know that children gain significant knowledge of language, reading, and writing long before they enter school. Children learn to talk, read, and write through such social literacy experiences as adults or older children interacting with them using books and other literacy materials, including magazines, markers, and paper.(www.zerotothree.org/BrainWonders).

In most states, 70 -80 percent of children enter kindergarten and first grade from emergent literacy households. They are ready to learn to read. In states, like Wisconsin with higher percentage of knowledgeable-responsible parents, children enter the primary grades with very good to excellent reading and writing readiness skills. Additional, they have excellent abilities to listen, ask questions, and process ideas. And their vocabularies, which are enormously larger that the children’s from non-emergent literacy households, grow at a faster rate. 

Imagine, therefore, the challenges facing the child from a non-emergent literacy household, who is entering first grade with no previous experiences with books, limited vocabulary, poor listening and speaking skills, etc. This child is already one or more "knowledge and skill levels" behind his peers, ― and that’s just the beginning. Additionally, beginning in first grade, the rate of knowledge and skills separation is going to increase as his/her classmates continue to acquire new knowledge and skills at a faster rate in school and home. Moreover, this child’s challenges will be further compounded if the child has disabilities that impact learning and/or high rate of absenteeism from the classroom during instruction. Entering first grade for these children is a social promotion and until such time that political leaders begin to address solution to preventing it, these students are going to continue to fail to read by fourth grade. 

by

James A. Porter