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Terry Salinger Terry Salinger Senior Advisor to the National High School Center, Managing Director and Chief Scientist for Reading at the American Institutes for Research Dr. Terry Salinger is a Managing Director and Chief Scientist for Reading Research at the American Institutes for Research. Her specific areas of focus are reading and literacy research and assessment. She is currently the project director for the Enhanced Reading Opportunities study, an IES-funded randomized control trial of the effectiveness of supplemental reading interventions for adolescent struggling readers. Additionally, Dr. Salinger provides content expertise on studies investigating pre-service teachers' preparation to teach beginning reading, use of an explicit curriculum for adult ESL learners, and monitoring the implementation of the Reading First program. She headed a study of the secondary component of the Alabama Reading Initiative, a state-wide effort to enhance reading instruction; led the project to develop the framework and specifications for the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading; and was senior advisor to the development of the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. Dr. Salinger has a doctorate in reading, with dual emphases on statistics and curriculum design, has done extensive research on the instruction and assessment of reading and writing; she has published widely, especially in the fields of literacy acquisition and standards-based assessment. Two chapters written by Dr. Salinger appear in the 2007 book Adolescent Literacy Instruction: Policies and Promising Practices, which is edited by Jill Lewis and Gary Moorman and published by the International Reading Association.

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High School Literacy

According to Bottoms, over 15 million high school students have graduated from high school reading below the basic level for the past 15 years. It is critical for high school students to be able to effectively read and comprehend written material to succeed in life, work and postsecondary education. Furthermore, societal needs have increased the importance of literacy in the workforce and that significance will continue to grow over the next decades.

The correlation between graduation rates and literacy rates are alarming. The National Assessment of Adult Literacy reports that 19% of students that dropout are only able to perform at basic or below-basic levels when presented with prose literacy tasks like reading editorials, news stories, and instructional materials (National Adult Literacy Survey, NCES, U.S. Department of Education; courtesy of the Education Statistics Quarterly. Vol. 3, Issue 4, Topic: Lifelong Learning). In addition to this startling statistic, there are several things to be discussed about adolescent literacy in high schools across the country. Students and teachers are noticing the insufficient mastery of skills needed for independent reading: decoding, vocabulary, and/or insufficient background knowledge and a decreased motivation and lower self-efficacy are developed by these students who lack these skills. Also, teachers sometimes feel inadequately prepared to meet the demands of struggling readers and identify necessary interventions for them. These and other related concerns are affecting high school literacy and the success of students everywhere.

Questions on High School Literacy:

• Question 1: How can we ensure more students, particularly in urban areas, graduate with the necessary fluency and comprehension skills to compete globally?

• Question 2: My high school student has a learning disability, and is reading far below his grade level. Please recommend resources and strategies to help improve his literacy.

• Question 3: What can districts do to support teachers in improving literacy strategies for high school students?

• Question 4: What impact does teacher: student ratio have on literacy rates at the secondary level?

• Question 5: Who is currently collecting data on the effectiveness of strategies for HS literacy instruction?
  
  
  
• Question 6: What are helpful tools and indicators for educators, in all content areas, to improve the literacy of their students?

 

Useful Resources on High School Literacy: High School Literacy: A Quick Stats Fact Sheet Reading Between the Lines: What the ACT Reveals About College Readiness in Reading What Works Clearinghouse Reviews on Research and Adolescent Literacy Interventions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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