U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, I want you to stop spreading the ignorant lie that the majority of American children cannot read at grade level.
Simply put:
BASIC means reading at grade level.
BELOW BASIC means reading below grade level.
PROFICIENT means reading above grade level.It is a lie that the majority of Americans grow up reading below grade level.
How do I know that and why don’t you?
“Between 700-900 million books are sold in the US per year.”
“An annual study found that the total number of magazine readers in the U.S. remained above 220 million in every year between 2016 and 2020, having previously hovered around the 210 and 215 million mark.”
“While 91% of all adults read magazines, those aged 35 and younger are more likely to read magazines (93-94%). In addition, 73% of adults agreed that reading a magazine or book in print format is more enjoyable than reading on a device.”
“Thirty-seven percent of fourth-grade students performed below the NAEP Basic level in 2022, which was 4 percentage points higher compared to 2019 and not significantly different from 1992.”
Can you subtract, Secretary Cardona?
100 – 37 = 63% are reading at or above grade level.
Secretary Cardona, do you know how many children live in poverty in the US?
If you don’t, you should!
You should also know that the leading factor that causes children to read below basic (below grade level in every country in the world) is poverty, not the quality of our public schools and public school teachers.
For the past dozen years, since the attack on public schools went into high gear, the same lie has been trotted out again and again to defame public schools. The slanderers say that 2/3 of American students are reading “below grade level.”
At Congressional hearings on the education budget on Tuesday April 18, the same ridiculous claim was made by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. He said that only 33% are reading at proficiency. He said this is “appalling and not acceptable for the United States. 33% of our students are reading on Grade level.” (At about 45:00).
This is nonsense. Its’s frankly appalling to hear Secretary Cardona repeating the lie spread by rightwing public school haters. He really should be briefed by officials from the National Assessment Governing Board before he testifies again.
On the NAEP (National Assessment of Educationsl Progress) tests, “proficient” does not represent grade…
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