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Teachers Are Less Likely to Teach Important Reading Skills to Some High School Students Than to Others

October 1, 2003

IOWA CITY, Iowa—High school teachers are less likely to teach important reading skills to classes of students they view as “non-college bound” than to classes of students they feel are headed for college, according to results from ACT’s recently completed National Curriculum Survey. The results indicate that teachers are particularly less likely to teach certain higher level reading skills to classes made up primarily of students who they assume aren’t going to college.


The results of the ACT National Curriculum Survey 2002-2003 are detailed in a report entitled Content Validity Evidence in Support of ACT’s Educational Achievement Tests.

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“These results are troubling, particularly since we don’t really know what criteria schools are using to categorize students as ‘non-college bound,’” said Cynthia Schmeiser, ACT’s senior vice president of research and development. “If students are unfairly labeled as non-college bound in middle school or high school, the negative consequences can affect them for the rest of their lives.”

The U.S. Department of Labor reports that all of the job categories projected to have faster-than-average employment growth in the next decade require at least a postsecondary vocational or academic certificate, and many require two- or four-year college degrees.

“More and more jobs are requiring at least some type of education beyond high school,” said Schmeiser. “As a result, the large majority of students will, in fact, end up going on to postsecondary education, and they will need strong reading skills to do well.”

The need for strong reading skills, however, is not limited to jobs that require a college degree. Results from ACT’s WorkKeys program, an assessment system of foundational skills necessary for success in the workplace, indicate that a person would need a reading skill level of at least 5—comparable to what is needed by an entering college freshman—to be prepared for 80 percent of the jobs that pay more than minimum wage but that don’t demand a four-year degree.

“A lot of jobs that don’t require a four-year college degree—from assemblers to clerk-typists to sales representatives—demand good critical reading and comprehension skills," said Thomas Saterfiel, ACT’s senior vice president of corporate development.

In addition, some educators argue that students’ plans after high school should have no impact on the type of education they receive.

“In a standards-based system—which is what 49 states have committed to—there should be no differences between college bound and non-college bound in terms of basic reading instruction,” said Carol Jago, a high school English teacher, author, and co-director of UCLA's California Reading and Literature Project. “All students are expected and deserve to be taught to read with comprehension. Important reading skills should be absolutes.”

ACT conducts its National Curriculum Survey every three to four years to determine what specific knowledge and skills are being taught in America’s secondary schools and expected of incoming college freshmen. The survey is completed by high school and junior high teachers and instructors of first-year college courses in the areas of math, science, English, and reading across the country. The results are used to guide the development of ACT’s curriculum-based assessment programs, including EXPLORE for 8th graders, PLAN for 10th graders, and the ACT college entrance and placement exam.

The curriculum survey results show a high level of agreement between secondary school teachers and college instructors on what reading skills are most important for students to learn and know. Among these skills are:

Secondary teachers’ responses indicate that a large majority—around three fourths—of the reading skills in the survey are taught with greater frequency in high school courses composed primarily of college bound students than in courses composed primarily of non-college bound students. Some of the greatest disparities in this regard are in higher-order reading skills such as:

Although these critical reading skills are ranked below more functional skills in terms of overall importance by both high school and college instructors, all of the reading skills in the survey are deemed by teachers as important for students to learn and know.

“The distinction isn’t in what teachers think is important; it’s in what they are actually teaching,” said Schmeiser.

The findings of the survey are based on the responses of 297 college instructors, 495 high school teachers, and 249 junior high/middle school teachers from across the nation. College instructors (primarily in the areas of literature, composition, rhetoric, U.S. history, and American government and politics) rated each of 64 reading skills according to its importance as a prerequisite for students’ success with the reading required by their classes. Secondary English/language arts teachers indicated whether each skill was or was not taught in a particular course they teach and the importance placed on each skill in that course.

The survey respondents included individuals from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Surveys were mailed to 5,699 potential respondents, yielding an overall response rate of 21 percent.