To pump up reading, schools cut back fun
Schools are intent on improving the reading ability of students. But in doing so, they may reduce programs that keep kids in school.
By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published July 29, 2005
A statewide effort to improve reading in middle and high schools is whittling away beloved elective courses that many educators think keep struggling students from dropping out.
The battle to increase literacy is crescendoing this school year, with districts rearranging their schedules to accommodate a state-led initiative to stress reading, reading and more reading in the upper grades.
The result: many high school students will be swapping chorus for 90 minutes of reading, vocational classes for 90 minutes of reading, Junior ROTC for 90 minutes of reading.
In Pasco County - which is most affected because it has fewer class periods than other local districts - Hudson High's Junior ROTC program could fall short of the numbers needed to keep it funded. A quarter of the students who signed up were identified as needing reading instruction instead.
At Pinellas County's Boca Ciega High School, two foreign language teachers and one physical education position were eliminated to make room for a new reading program that targets 800 students. That's almost nine times as many students as last year.
"We're going to overwhelm our students with reading strategies," Principal John Leanes said of his school's take-no-prisoners approach to literacy.
The state says as many as 257,000 of Florida's lowest-performing high school students could be targeted for extra reading instruction this year. That has leaders in the state's career-technical community concerned. They worry that removing kids from classes they feel are relevant could undermine efforts to keep them reading and in school.
"We know some students only stay in school because of those electives," acknowledged Tammy Rabon, the curriculum director in Pasco County. "The electives are a wonderful way for them to explore their passions. At the same time, we need a literate society."
Rachel Weisberg, 14, did not take the news well. Since fifth grade, she has had her mind set on joining Junior ROTC. So she winced when she looked over her course schedule during Thursday's freshman orientation at Hudson High.
Intensive reading, two periods. Maybe she could get out of it, she thought.
"You can't get out," 10th-grader Samantha Hatfield informed her. "If they put you in reading, you can't get out."
Brad Birchfield, 17, a Hudson High junior, said he wonders what would have happened if the requirement had been in place when he started high school. Junior ROTC turned him from a "slacker" with an F-average, he said, to an enthusiastic 4.0 GPA student. "ROTC gave me something to want to be here for," he said.
With the federal No Child Left Behind Act forcing schools to focus on reading and math, school districts across the nation are reducing time spent in other subjects, according to the Center on Education Policy: 27 percent report cutting back in social studies, 22 percent in science, 20 percent in art and music and 10 percent in physical education.
Erica Stansberry, mother of a Pasco ninth-grader, wondered when she saw her son's schedule why there was no social studies. "Intensive Reading, hey, it's okay," she said. "But this is too much. This is two hours every day for 18 weeks . . . They're going to get very bored with this very quick."
For years the state has fought to improve reading in lower grades, but about half of Florida's ninth- and 10th-graders are reading at a level the state considers below proficient. That prompted the Legislature this year to more than double the amount of money available to districts for reading instruction.
There was a catch: Districts only get a share of the $89-million if they submit plans outlining 90 minutes of reading for elementary students and 50 to 90 minutes for middle and high school kids who scored poorly on the FCAT.
Mary Laura Openshaw, director of the "Just Read, Florida!" reading initiative, agrees the additional instruction poses problems for the traditional comprehensive high school. But just as elective courses keep kids in school, illiteracy is a dropout's bedmate.
"We're challenging districts to figure out a way to get students what they need in reading and still give them a way to enjoy the electives," Openshaw said.
The problem is how to do it.
Judy Whitaker, a board member with the Association of Career and Technical Education, said that with No Child Left Behind raising the bar for reading and math instruction, vocational programs are having to fight for a seat at the table. At the high school level, she said, reading must be taught through courses students find relevant, whether it's math, science or auto mechanics.
"If a child is struggling in a course and you give them a double dose of it, sometimes they resent it and they go backward," she said.
Gerry Painter got her high school teaching degree in 1969 without ever taking a class on how to teach reading. "It was assumed the kids would be coming to me reading," the Zephyrhills High School principal said.
More than three decades later, that assumption has all but vanished. Eighty percent of Painter's faculty has had some training in reading instruction. And more than a third of her students will be enrolled in a reading class this school year.
Chorus teacher Fremont Ogle will lose one of his four music classes to Zephyrhills' reading program. There isn't room in the school's schedule for his class or enough reading classes to serve the 625 students who qualify for remedial reading.
Some teachers have sought training to help them teach reading, including some whose prior experience was in areas such as physical education or food preparation. Of eight intensive reading instructors at Zephyrhills this year, four will be teaching reading for the first time, Painter said.
Ogle didn't feel that was for him. He'll probably be manning a period of in-school suspension instead, his principal said.
"It does sadden me a little bit that we have to move out of the way for this reading program," he said.
But who can oppose the cause of literacy?
Districts report varying impacts from the required reading courses. Much depends on how schools structure their class schedules.
Pasco's six-period day means as many as 1,200 high school students are faced with difficult tradeoffs. Adding a seventh period would require additional bargaining with the teachers union, assistant superintendent Bob Dorn said. The state funds a six-period day; adding more time would cost more money.
Pinellas is having an easier time complying with the requirement since about half its high schools run on seven-period days and half on a 90-minute period block schedule.
Still, the number of high schoolers taking reading is expected to double to 4,500 compared with last year, Pinellas reading specialist Dan Evans said. Just staffing those reading classes may squeeze other subject areas.
"There is no way you can just run around the country and find enough reading teachers who want to move to St. Pete or Pinellas County," Evans said.
Hillsborough implemented an aggressive secondary reading plan three years ago that already fits the state's new requirements, according to secondary schools director Chuck Fleming.
"Did it drastically change what we were doing in Hillsborough County three years ago? Yes, it did," Fleming said.