“No, she doesn’t read at all.”

Parents generally respond this way to my intake-form question, “Does your student read, and if so, what kind of material?”

We know that many of today’s high school students often prefer media featuring snippets of image-based content and often, no words. It’s easy to consume and requires less thought.

It’s the “thought” part that matters to me.

While I wish that students would read books to derive the pleasure and knowledge from them that I always have, the form of media they choose matters less to me than the process, the ability to connect ideas and abstract concepts to develop viewpoints, to get context, simply to get from A to B to C.

When I was a young English teacher, a freshman business major challenged me, “What’s the value of reading a novel?”

I responded that in addition to “understanding what motivates people and why they behave as they do” that we can get from any book, fiction or nonfiction, there was more for the reader who was motivated to dig deeper. From Oliver Twist, and Dickens in general, I learned about laissez-faire capitalism, utilitarianism, and the deepening division of classes during the Industrial Revolution. Yes, there is a love story too. The Great Gatsby, still a mainstay of the high school syllabus, illustrates how the growth of American economics in the Gilded Age led to the excesses of the 1920’s. Its story of materialism, racism, classism defines the times–and our own. And yes, students also enjoy musing about Nick’s sexuality.

Through engaging with books, articles, podcasts, manga and other graphic novels, students become more nimble thinkers, able to go beyond the obvious and discover meaning. They will graduate into a world that requires constant adaptability. Honing this skill will help them become problem solvers as students and adults, at school, at work, and most importantly, thoughtful and compassionate children, friends, and parents.

What do dropping SAT/ACT Scores Reveal?

Last week’s post focused on the dip of the average ACT score to a 19.8 and the SAT to a 1050. The consistent dropping of scores indicates lower academic performance. Why are scores dropping?

ACT CEO Janet Godwin said the decline can’t be blamed exclusively by learning disruptions from online learning and missed classes when schools were shuttered during the Covid-19 pandemic, but by “longtime systemic failures” that were “exacerbated by the pandemic.”

“The magnitude of the declines this year is particularly alarming, as we see rapidly growing numbers of seniors leaving high school without meeting the college-readiness benchmark in any of the subjects we measure,” Godwin said in a press release,

Recent studies have linked online learning during the pandemic—when teachers were forced to completely pivot from in-person classes to lessons online—to disruptions in students’ math and reading comprehension. During that time, students were shown to have connected less with their teachers and classmates, and become distracted more easily while at home. The high school class of 2022 dealt with online learning for more than half of their time in high school, starting in March, 2020. Students who switched to online lessons from in-person classes for just a month missed the equivalent of seven to 10 weeks of math, Harvard University Center for Education Policy Research director Thomas Kane told NPR.

I believe that other factors, especially mental health concerns, play a role:

The loneliness caused by the lockdown exacerbated pre-existing issues involving social media. Though apps provide connection, they may also distract students from learning, and promote insecurity, anxiety, and depression. My students who survived the pandemic and managed academics more successfully were those who exercised, created websites or podcasts, did virtual or other volunteering, expressed themselves creatively, or played games. Some started small businesses. These were activity-based projects, generally scheduled, that encouraged engagement.

Some students simply read more, exploring an interest in a topic, either fiction or non-fiction. But the truth is that reading scores are lower because fewer students read. I’ll explore that next week.

The Latest News About Standardized Test Scores

The big news this week was the drop in ACT scores:

“This year, the average ACT score was the lowest it’s been since 1991, the organization said in a news release.

And it’s the fifth year in a row that average scores have been going down, ACT CEO Janet Godwin said in a statement.”

• Approximately 1.3 million students in the U.S. high school graduating class of 2022 took the ACT test, an estimated 36 percent of graduates nationwide.

• The national average Composite score for the graduating class of 2022 is 19.8, down from 20.3 for the graduating class of 2021, the lowest average score since 1991.

• Thirty-five percent of the ACT-tested graduating class took the ACT more than once, as compared to 32% for the 2021 cohort.

• Thirty-two percent of ACT-tested graduates in the class of 2022 met at least three out of four ACT College Readiness Benchmarks (English, reading, math, and science), while, 42% of students met none ACT College Readiness Benchmarks and 22% met all four ACT College Readiness Benchmarks.

• A record number of students in this cohort took the ACT as part of state and district school-day testing—16 states tested more than 75% of their students—providing students the opportunity to earn college-reportable ACT scores by taking the test in their own classrooms during regular school hours on a weekday and allowing states to receive a more clear understanding of how their school districts are performing.

What about the SAT?

The average SAT score also declined for this year’s class, to 1050, out of a maximum 1600. The average for the previous class was 1060. The SAT takes three hours and covers two sections, math and evidence-based reading and writing. Most questions are in a multiple-choice format.

Major changes are coming to the SAT as it is scheduled to move to a shorter, digital format, ditching the paper-and-pencil version at U.S. sites by spring 2024.

The discussion of why scores have dropped is broad…I’ll share some reasons from experts in next week’s blogpost.