The Importance of Early Childhood Education and Its Impact on Reading
It wasn’t until I started raising toddlers, that I understood how imperative the years 2-4 were for children. Especially when it comes to education.
As a former high school English teacher, I taught students at various reading levels. But for my students who were considered “low” and couldn’t read, their comprehension of reading would be between the 3rd and 4th grade levels. I was always super frustrated at the fact that these students were "passed on" through school without knowing how to read. Ignorantly, I blamed every teacher before them. I didn't understand systemically, how much of it was out of an educator’s control.
In my current role as an Assistant Principal, my job is to coach and train teachers, help them make sense of curriculum, modify and change it based on student data, then teach the content to students. Them, like me, are also struggling with filling gaps with high school students who are stuck at 3rd and 4th grade reading levels. Furthermore, we understand exactly where student’s gaps are, but, we aren’t necessarily trained to close those gaps properly. I will elaborate more on this later on in the post.
When my own children began Pre K, they would come up with “homework” packets, which were just a continuation of what they were learning at school. So I would work with Jeuce and Bash on sounding out letters, making sense of the sounds two or three letters make when put together, etc. Where I begin to struggle was actually teaching the rules of reading and decoding these syllables. Why do certain letters make different sounds when placed next to other certain letters? How do I get my child to understand why the "c" in cat is different from the "c" in city? I remember one time, “K” was the letter of the day and I asked Bash, “Which word begins with K?” He said, “CANAAN!” Because in his mind, “KAY-NAAN” begins with a “K,” no matter how it’s spelled. Do you know off the top of your head, why or how “C” can make so many sounds? Neither do I and trying to explain it to a 3 year old?? There are so many rules, and I am sorry parents, you won't be able to flash card your child's way of learning the specific rules in the English language.
Most would think this would come easy for me as an English teacher and Assistant Principal. But educators have specialties and teaching foundational reading skills is not my ministry. Teaching high school English, the curriculum I implemented, and now help English teachers deliver, assumes that the student already has foundational reading skills and abilities. It assumes that a student has a strong understanding of the rules I mentioned above, and giving them a complex text should be easy for them to read —like I said, they were stuck at 3rd and 4th grade. So I began to analyze these two things: 1) what are my kids learning in pre K? 2) what is it that high school students are expected to walk away knowing? and 3) based on the state standards, where is this shift in focus in the curriculum teachers are given?
It's after 2nd grade for the State of Texas.
The Science of Reading
There's a Science of Reading. No seriously, there is. The Science of Reading helps educators understand the various stages of cognitive processes needed for students to understand how to read. When I stated above that we can't flash card our way through teaching students how to read, it's because research on the Science of Reading tells us this:
If a child memorizes ten words, then the child can read ten words. But, if the child can learn the sounds of ten letters, the child can read…
350 three-sound words
4,320 four-sound words
21,650 five-sound words
Comprehension and making meaning of a text is the ultimate goal of reading. There are two strands that must be mastered in order to meet this goal. Pictured below is Scarborough's Reading Rope which details the complexity of reading.
In the "Word Recognition" phase, the focus for students is to learn phonological awareness, decoding and site recognition. In the State of Texas, the curriculum places emphasis on this stage in the school years of Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade. By the time students are in the 3rd grade, they should be able to move to the second phase, "Language Comprehension” using the skills they mastered in the previous three years.
From the 3rd to 12th grade, texts become more and more complex, and based on the rules (phonological awareness, decoding and site recognition) students were supposed to master from Kinder to 2nd grade, they should be able to, at minimum, read the text-- Which would make an upper elementary, middle and high school teacher's job in teaching language comprehension, more attainable. Right?
The Inequities of Not Having Early Childhood Accessible for All
The No Child Left Behind Act was a bipartisan law that was supported by many business groups and civil rights organizations and its goal was to close the achievement gap and hold states accountable for student achievement. Ultimately, America wanted to be more competitive with other countries in education, and the thought was that if states were held accountable, we should see an increase in student achievement. However, this focus backfired because what ended up happening is that now you have placed more of an emphasis on Standardized testing, the curriculum will now focus on what will be assessed, which means closing gaps won't be the priority... teaching students how to pass the test, will.
Because state testing begins at 3rd grade, reading and language comprehension becomes the north star for schools. Educators only have a year with a student; and in one year it's impossible to close years worth of gaps, on top of what a child should learn at the end of the current school year.. The focus on word recognition cannot be mastered in two to three years for all students.
My children have been in school, both private and public, since they were 9 months, and by 1 year of age, they were able to identify some of the letters in the alphabet. But at one point in time, my husband and I were paying $1,800 in childcare because we have "stair steppers." That's insane. And for most families, unaffordable. However, because both me and my husband are educators, we have the privilege of knowing how pivotal these years are in education. We are also privileged enough to financial prioritize education—everyone isn’t able to make that decision, and honestly, shouldn’t have to.
If we prioritized Early Childhood Education, by making it financial accessible *cough, free* for all families, then we would see children being exposed to reading skills earlier and not leaving the challenge of teaching reading, solely, to Kinder - 2nd grade teachers. I also have major thoughts about spiraling these skills from EC to 7th-8th grade, but I will leave that for another post :)
Another challenge that we have to consider is Summer Learning Loss. This is the loss of skills and knowledge that students lose over the course of our lengthy Summer breaks. It has been founded that over the summer, students are losing up to 40% of skills and knowledge they learned over the school year. That number increases in communities that are underserved and under resourced (Kuhfeld, M. 2019).
Couple this challenge, for a 5-6 year old, with the fact that they only have 3 grade levels to completely master reading skills... reading skills that should carry them for a lifetime. It's no wonder why that in 2021, 79% of adults in the US are illiterate, 54% are reading below 6th grade. What is even more disturbing is that 66% of 4th grade students are illiterate... yet in still, they will be passed on until High School where, I've heard several times, "it counts."
Read more about the Digest of Education Statistics here.
So what now?
I know that it starts with Early Childhood Education. We need more money given toward ECE and less of intervention programs in the latter years. More focus on foundational education would result in less of a need of intervention.
If you're a parent and reading this, especially in Texas, we can begin by:
Reading to your children daily
Having direct conversation with your children to build vocabulary
Becoming familiar with sight words and simple picture vocabulary cards
Also, if you are financial able, please consider putting your child into a safe Pre-K program by the age of 3. Those years are crucial and sets the foundation for primary years. If you are a childcare facility, look into integrating a reading curriculum.
When it comes to Summer programs, please look in The Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools. They are all over the country and it is where I found my love for education. We BOOM Freedom Summer is another great organization and is located in Oak Cliff, TX. Their primary focus is to combat Summer Learning Loss, through reading, in underserved and under resourced communities.
