ACT calls upon high schools to strengthen graduates’ reading readiness for college by using more complex textbooks

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(A photo from our 2005 Summer Leadership Institute.)

Lew Armistead
LA Communications

     If principals want to see their graduates fare well in college or workforce training programs, the key may be providing them more complex textbooks in their high school years.

     That’s the advice found in “Reading Between the Lines,” a report by ACT that was released March 1 and contends that too many American high school students are graduating without the reading skills they’ll need to succeed in college and workforce training.

     The report also points out that when high school graduates are well-prepared for college-level reading, good things happen. Compared to graduates not ready for college level reading, those prepared are more likely to—

• enroll in college in the fall following high school   graduation;
• earn higher grades in college social science   courses;
• earn higher first-year college grade point averages;   and
• return to the same college for a second year.

     ACT reported that the ability to read complex texts “is the clearest differentiator between students who are more likely to be ready for college-level reading and those who are less likely to be ready.”

     ACT’s EXPLORE and PLAN assessment indicate that a greater percentage of eighth and 10th grade students are on target to be ready for college-level reading than the percentage who are actually ready when they graduate from high school. This suggests that students are not continuing to developing their reading skills in the final two years of high school, according to ACT.

    While ACT states that part of the problem lies with states that don’t “define the types of reading materials to which high school students in each specific grade should be exposed,” it also recommends a number of actions schools can take.

    “It’s clear that our high schools should be incorporating more complex reading materials into courses across the curriculum,” recommends Richard L. Ferguson, chief executive officer, ACT. He calls for teachers to use more higher-level reading materials, such as those students will encounter in college, into their classes.

    He also calls for teachers to have high expectations for all students. The results of ACT’s National Curriculum Survey, completed by thousands of high school teachers across the country in 2003, “suggest that high school teachers are more likely to teach high-order critical reading skills to classes of students they perceive to be college-bound than to classes of students they assume are not going to college.”

    “The impact of low expectations is devastating to students,” Ferguson said. “We have a moral imperative to give all students the opportunity to develop critical reading skills in high school.”

     The ACT report recommends more complex texts in all high school courses in English, mathematics, social studies, and science. It also cites six “essential features” of complex texts—

• Relationships—Interactions among ideas or characters in the text are subtle, involved, or deeply embedded.

• Richness—The text possesses a sizable amount of highly sophisticated information conveyed through data or literary devices.

• Structure—The text is organized in ways that are elaborate and sometimes unconventional.

• Style—The author’s tone and use of language are often intricate.

• Vocabulary—The author’s choice of words is demanding and highly context-dependent.

• Purpose—The author’s intent in writing the text is implicit and sometimes ambiguous.

     ACT recommended that educators and policy makers take action to increase the numbers of high school graduates who are ready for college-level reading. Among suggestions to educators are:

• Make targeted interventions to help students who have fallen behind in their reading skills. Much of this work needs to be done before students reach high school.

• Provide high school teachers with guidance and support to strengthen reading instruction and to incorporate the kinds of complex texts that are most likely to increase students’ readiness for college-level reading.

• Strengthen high school assessments so that they align with improved state standards and high school instruction across the curriculum.

• Require all teachers in all courses to teach reading strategies so that students are able to progress from comprehension of simple texts to comprehension of more complex texts.

• Push students to read texts that are personally challenging, and support their efforts by giving them a variety of critical reading strategies to use.

• Systematically assess students’ college readiness in reading to evaluate their progress and make timely interventions when they encounter difficulties.

     “Reading Between the Lines” is available for viewing and free downloading at the ACT website, http://www.act.org/path/policy/index.html. It includes a number of sample reading passages that illustrate the six essential elements of complex tests.

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