The really bad news is in eighth-grade reading, where the top performers stayed absolutely steady and the bottom performers dropped a net of three points.
This is where we need to be sounding the alarm, because this is further evidence that we really haven’t figured out:
1) middle school [I'll say]
2) how to help those kids who have mastered the mechanics of reading to understand material that is more sophisticated than the relatively simple fourth-grade reading selections. If there is an argument that schools don’t have a broad enough or rich enough curriculum, the evidence lies in the eighth-grade reading results. Once basic decoding skills are mastered, reading comprehension is heavily dependent on vocabulary and background knowledge, which are taught in science, social studies, and the arts. It is a longstanding problem that too many middle schools don’t bother teaching much of any of those subjects, and one that we as a nation need to tackle.
Was it the NY Times that called middle school the black hole of public education?
I don't remember.
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