Welcome to the Education Commission of the States' High School Database

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Adolescent Literacy

Why this issue matters

• Reading problems that are not addressed are cumulative, and so are the esteem problems associated with poor reading skills.
• State efforts to successfully raise K-3 reading skills can flounder in later grades if effective teaching of reading is neglected in the upper elementary and secondary grades.
• Secondary-level teacher certification programs have traditionally not prepared teachers to teach reading or how to intervene when students are reading below grade level.
• Middle and high school teachers who have been in the classroom for a number of years might not have received preservice training on teaching reading and/or detecting precise reading-related problems.

Why our methodology matters

• Primary resources: ECS draws its information primarily from state statute, rules and regulations, recently enacted legislation, executive orders and other primary source documents.
• As needed, policies (and their interpretation) are confirmed with state-level staff.
• We believe that policy helps institutionalize practice.
• Our goal is to document where the underlying authority lies, and where consensus has been strong enough to adopt a common approach.

Related ECS products

• Student Support and Remediation database
• Reading/Literacy: Recent state policies/activities database and issue site
• Teaching Quality: Recent state policies/activities database and issue site

Staff contact:
Melodye Bush, researcher
303.299.3631
mbush@ecs.org

A report containing all information available in the Adolescent Literacy database for a single state Select States and Data Points: Choose the states and data points to appear in a personalized report.

Adolescent literacy (all data points for all states) State requires schools to provide interventions for struggling readers State requires students performing below proficiency on state reading assessments to be targeted for diagnostic reading assessments State has literacy report card or other means to build momentum for improving adolescent literacy State has aligned literacy standards with curricula, assessments and professional development activities State provides supports for local literacy plans State has strengthened teacher preparation/certification requirements to support adolescent literacy needs State offers specialized certification/endorsement in adolescent literacy for content area teachers State offers schoolwide professional development in adolescent literacy instruction State offers middle/high school teachers a mentoring/induction program with a literacy component State offers principals incentives to strengthen their leadership in adolescent literacy State has designated a state office or coordinator for adolescent literacy State has standards that reflect literacy expectations explicit in grades 4-12 Other efforts/initiatives

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Use the diagram below to view the components of state-level high school reform, and their relationship to one another (the links shown in grey are coming soon).

Comments? Questions? Contact Jennifer Dounay at 303.299.3689 or jdounay@ecs.org.