Reply to 40% of 4th graders cannot read in 2026

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "40% of 4th graders cannot read in 2026"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don’t think we can blame parents. It’s not fair to expect parents to spend an hour a day tutoring what should be taught in the 7 hours they’re in school daily.

I blame edtech. Get rid of the laptops and force reading from paper books and textbooks. It’s not the same to read on a screen.  [/quote]

There are reports showing on 37% of parents of toddlers read tot heir kids daily with 55% reading to their toddlers 5 days a week. That is the start of the problem. Kids who are read to regularly, preferably daily, are exposed to sounds, letters, blends, and the basic skills needed for reading early on. The majority of those kids will learn to read by K. The kids who had been read to regularly and struggle with reading themselves tend to have learning issues.

But when kids walk into K and don’t know their sounds or basic letters because no one was reading to them regularly as toddlers and pre-K they are behind.

So yeah, not reading in early ES is on the parents. Asking teachers to make up for 5-7 years of not being read to at home at school is ridiculous.

The reason the education gap exists is because people who had parents who had the time and money and did things like read to their kids tend to produce kids who end up with jobs who have the time and money and knowledge to read to their kids. People who did not do well in school or dropped out or never really attended because their parents didn’t care tend to have similar kids and the pattern persists. Asking teachers to fix a problem that is 1) generaational 2) parent based is unreasonable. It tells me you don’t understand how the brain develops or how education works.[/quote]

I don’t think reading to your kid is always enough. We read to our kids every night from the day they are born and I still needed to do explicit phonics instruction. I started with sounds at 3 and my five year old is now on lesson 60 of 100 lessons (the book definitely takes time). That has really worked for us. Really thankful for dcurbanmoms in recommending that resource.[/quote]

Agreed, it is not enough but it sets the foundation. When kids arrive at K knowing their sounds and letters and having been exposed to books an reading, it is easier for them to absorb reading instruction from teachers, like phonics and the like. When kids arrive at school and don’t know their letters and sounds an have not been read to, they are starting with a big gap. They are not used to sitting and being read to and have to develop that habit. Plus learn their letters and sounds before you can start with things like phonics.

The standard for what is grade level is going to be hard to hit for kids who are arriving at school unprepared for whatever reason. Given the percentage of kis living in poverty in the US and ESOL, 40% of kids being under grade level is not a surprise.

And I didn’t watch the video. The reality is that this is far more a problem at home than at school. There is only so much a teacher can do. Homes that do not prioritize education are going to have kids who fall below the standard and there is not a darn thing the schools can do to fix that. A kid who arrives at school whose parents didn’t read to them as toddlers and pre-K kids is not likely to have a parent at home that will practice reading with them at home once school starts. Or help with math homework or any of that. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics