Jacksonville, we have a big reading problem.

First you should know the way scores are compiled on the FCAT reading tests are a bit disingenuous. i.e. have you ever wondered why the reading scores are so good in our elementary schools but are pretty poor in our high schools? Well it’s because the thresholds for success are different, it is a lot easier to get a three (passing) on the test in elementary school than it is a high school.

With that being said many of our high school reading scores are pretty poor.

At six of our high schools over a third of the students scored a one (out of 5) on the FCAT and there is no way to spin that into anything positive. (Jackson -46%, Englewood -37%, Ribault-34%, Raines -44%, Randolph 40% and Forrest-36%).

If you wanted to know the schools that had two thirds of their students scoring below a three, you can add Ed White (73%), Lee (64%), First Coast 70% and Terry Parker (66%) to the list above with Atlantic Coast (56%) and Frank Peterson (59%) just missing it.

The cities magnet schools continue to do very well, Stanton and Paxon had one percent of their kids score a one, with Douglass Anderson having 4%. Then Fletcher and Mandarin had combined one and two scores of 45 and 46% respectively.

Looking back historically forcing children into intensive reading courses doesn’t seem to be working as our scores really are not improving.

Some potential solutions: first we should train our content area teachers (science and social studies) in reading and then encourage these teachers to use more reading strategies in their classes. Teachers already have a lot on their plates and if we are going to put something on them we need to take something off. We need to relax the learning schedule and assemble a bank of articles for teachers to use, that correspond with their subject matter. If they have to find their own articles then we’re not going to get the level of participation we need and if we don’t relax the learning schedule then we can’t expect them to do additional work.

Summer school: we need legitimate summer school, not throw kids in front of the computer school and we need it for a lot more of our kids. A lot of our kids need longer to learn material and less time to forget it.

More career academies, we need to teach more kids, trades, skills and the arts and then we can use these things as an inducement. Oh you want to be in cosmetology; well we better make sure we get those grades up.

Start younger: smaller classes in elementary school, with more assistants and electives. Of the three groups of teachers, elementary, middle and high school, elementary teachers often have the most tasks and the least amount of planning time.

School IDS should double as library cards (and bus passes too).

We have a huge reading problem but we have reading solutions too.