Asking the big Why? at the University of North Carolina

Our state tests, which are more generous than the NAEP scores, have 27.2 percent of black males in Chapel Hill-Carrboro reading proficiently. In Durham, 22.9 percent can read their classroom materials. ( www.ncpublicschools.org) Research from The Annie E. Casey Foundation shows strong correlations between not being able to read on grade level and the dropout rate, drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, unemployment and crime.

Jamezetta Bedford, the chairwoman of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education, has asked how we are achieving high graduation rates with such low proficiency rates. It is a curious situation. How is a student who isn’t able to read his eighth grade classroom materials able to graduate from high school?

An even more curious situation is the prevalence of private schools for reading instruction. When you were growing up, what was the name of your town’s private school for reading instruction? There wasn’t one in any of the places I lived. In the Triangle area we have six such schools. If your child is struggling with reading, and you have $15,000 or more, your child can learn to read. In North Carolina reading has become an elitist activity.

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