The article begins by delving into how important reading is for students.

"Incorporating reading into day-to-day curriculums can take on many different forms. One way is to designate a daily scheduled time when the main focus is reading. Getting students accustomed to a daily reading block for 20–30 minutes can build positive reading habits and encourage them to get excited about reading."

The article proposes one method for reading times, a short block everyday.

"Allowing students to select books based on their interests communicates that their opinions matter and involves them in their learning. "

This article mentions that not only is having structured reading times important but students should have the ability to choose their own material.

"Shared reading experiences have many benefits. Discussing books and topics with peers makes reading a collaborative experience. Students can learn from one another and develop discussion skills in small groups or partner sharing."

This article mentions pairing reading time with small group discussions which is important as it encourages students to analyze the material on their own without the assistance of technology.

I chose this as a concise articulation of how students are performing much poorly in reading assessments over time.

"Results reflect the performance of a nationally representative sample of 8,700 thirteen-year-olds in each subject."

I chose this so that the sample population was clear.

"In 2023, fourteen percent of students reported reading for fun almost every day. This percentage was 3 percentage points lower than 2020, and 13 percentage points lower than 2012. Overall, the percentage of 13-year-old students who reported reading for fun almost every day was lower in 2023 than in all previous assessment years."

I chose this because it brings up the correlation between those who choose to read for fun and their reading scores.

"Fifty-one percent of 13-year-old students scoring at or above the 75th percentile in 2023 reported that they read for fun on their own time at least once a week, whereas 28 percent of 13-year-old students scoring below the 25th percentile reported doing so. The percentage of students who reported reading for fun on their own time once or twice a month was also larger for students at or above the 75th percentile. Conversely, the percentages of students who reported reading less frequently—a few times a year or never or hardly ever—were larger for students performing below the 25th percentile."

This makes it clear that those who performed better on the assessment also tend to read for fun more often.

This article delves into early considerations of a literacy block and discusses there initially being a misalignment with research proving its efficacy.

"During this time the fields of literacy, school improvement, and special education research were beginning to converge around the concepts of core instruction and early, intensive intervention. Research conducted up to that point undergirds the now well-established practices of MTSS, Education Northwest | Evidence for an Uninterrupted, 90-Minute Literacy Instruction Block Literacy Brief 3 including well-defined core instruction, additional tiers of support, data-based decision-making, and the use of diagnostic assessments and progress monitoring (American Institutes for Research, n.d.). Despite the fact that the early Reading First guidance did not use MTSS-type terminology, it appears that the evidence base for the 90-minute block arose from this complex, difficult-to-trace mix of research, expert opinion, and practitioner knowledge. Under ESSA, this evidence would be considered to meet the “demonstrates a rationale” level of rigor."

There is sufficient evidence proving the efficacy of a time block!

"Essentially, by the time the uninterrupted, 90-minute reading block came to be a requirement of Reading First, leading researchers had come to realize that schools frequently had schedules that allocated plenty of time to literacy, for example, but it was clear that the quality of instruction during that allocated time was frequently not conducive to high levels of learning."

It is an interesting consideration that implementing the time block is not enough and that there are still more issues.

"Nearly a decade earlier, a long-running school effectiveness study (Teddlie et al., 1989) had found that “classroom practices in ineffective schools (regardless of community SES)” demonstrated: • Substantially less attention paid to student time on task • Less delivery of high-quality instructional material • A lack of belief among teachers that students could attain high academic expectations • More frequent interruptions to instruction"

This section forced me to think even deeper about the issue because I never even considered that changes must be made even in schools with this literacy block.

This quote references a current standard in place and proposes a better intervention.

"We recommend 120 as a way to keep this 90-minute block for whole-class instructional activities and add an additional 30 minutes dedicated to small-group instruction in which students receive differentiated instruction targeted on skills they are still developing."

One of my ideas was having specific discussion times to encourage students to be able to interpret readings without the assistance of technology and this time block allocates time for that.

"In our experience, this additional, focused 30 minutes turbo charges student learning—it provides a guardrail so that students don’t fall behind just because they need a little extra help with a particular skill. Crucially, that also means that teachers are able to make better use of their 90-minute block because they can move the whole class along at a more consistent rate."

Not only is the extra time helpful for discussions but it also ensures that no child is left behind which is great considering my sentence revolved around "the child".

"In addition to spending time diving deeply into the school’s curriculum and aligning with other leaders tasked with supporting early literacy throughout the school or system, leaders need scheduled time to routinely observe classrooms and provide actionable feedback to teachers about their instruction."

The article takes it one step forward and even encourages changes to be made even amongst leaders in education.

This proves that reading can expand skills beyond openness and encourage empathy.

"Professor Hillel also points to the power of shared reading to create social connections – one reason she prefers paper books over the electronic variety."

“Book clubs are ethical spaces that promote dialogue and negotiated understandings. Book talk is used to discuss ethical issues of both personal and public significance. In the Australian context, this may mean, among other things, thinking through what it means to be part of a settler colonial culture and its devastating legacies,” said Dr Nolan. 

This is an incredibly important take that describes how important reading is for creating dialogue around unfamiliar perspectives.

"Key issues for reading ethically include how we identify with characters, how we deal with uncertainty, and how we confront issues of privilege, gender, class and history. "

Once again, this is a statement that expands on how reading can lead to an understanding of different perspectives.

“Book club readers bring a high degree of openness and engagement to their understanding of others, even in cross-cultural contexts. Readers tend to judge the success of books on how easily they can identify with characters, and there is a danger, perhaps, that in seeking a shared emotional response, real differences can be erased,” said Dr Nolan."

This is a particularly important quote as it directly mentions openness which is the corner stone of my arguement.

I had assumed that reading increases openness in students and it is interesting to note the other traits that it fosters.

"According to Mar and Oatley, when reading fiction an individual simulates, that is, feels emotions and experiences thoughts congruent with the story’s characters. Readers also learn about the complex social world by abstracting meaning, drawing inferences, and making predictions about plot development and the interpersonal relationships in the story."

Reading is such an important foundation of developing skills necessary to navigate the world, it is reassuring to think that it is also backed with scientific evidence.

"In the current study, individuals who experienced high levels of affective empathy while reading were nearly twice as likely to engage in prosocial behavior as individuals experiencing low levels of affective empathy."

Again, another quote that depicts a beneficial side effect of reading.

"The primary limitation of this study is that both studies were correlational in nature. As a result, it cannot be concluded that the effects of transportation, empathy, and perceptual bias on helping behavior are causal. However, two primary alternative explanations of the results were eliminated by controlling for dispositional empathy and one’s general tendency to become absorbed in a story. This control strengthens the argument that the results in the study were due to the immediate effects of reading a fictional story. The design also capitalized on the apparent large individual differences in response to reading a fictional story. Future studies should determine the causal relationships among transportation, empathy, and prosocial behavior."

While this quote provides a slight counter to my argument by undermining the research, there is a rebuttal built in that reinforces the research's credibility.

This decrease in reading scores that goes beyond the pandemic clarifies this as an ongoing issue.

"No nationwide rebound from the impact of the pandemic on achievement.
Nearly five years after the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation is below its 2019, or pre-pandemic, scores in both grades and subjects on The Nation’s Report Card. Just two states have surpassed their pre-pandemic scores in a single grade and subject: Louisiana surpassed its 2019 4th grade reading score; and Alabama surpassed its 2019 4th grade math score."

While the pandemic played a heavy role in students losing crucial reading abilities, there is clearly some alternative factor still preventing growth.

"Across grades and subjects, declines in 2024 were generally driven by lower-performing rather than higher-performing students. Today the lowest-performing students score about 100 points below the highest-performing students."

Persistent gaps still exist between the highest and lowest performing students, the 120 minute literacy block proposed in another source though aims to ensure no child is left behind.

"We made progress in closing this gap until around 2010, but it’s been steadily widening since. Policymakers at all levels of government must understand and work to reverse this trend, starting by holding all students to a high standard and helping them reach that bar.”

The No Child Left Behind Act was active from 2001-2010, I think this might have played a role in the progress.

My main argument rests upon the critical thinking skills that reading builds as well as the empathy it cultivates, if students are unable to even find meaning in text then they are clearly deprived of benefits of reading.

"There are three hypotheses to explain what's been happening.

Number one is, there's been a decline in focus on test-based accountability since the No Child Left Behind act expired in 2015. But the two other hypotheses are the rise in social media use, which is concentrated among lower-achieving students — by the way, a number of European and Asian countries are seeing the same widening that we are.

And a third possibility is the rise in student absenteeism, which spiked during the pandemic, but remains high."

This directly mentions the same act that brought the literacy block; however, they seemed to prefer the use of testing that was proposed in the act. This is also brings up the technology use and absenteeism as the lingering effects from the pandemic.

"There's research that shows that in order for kids to be better at reading, they have to practice reading. They need to read more often."

Clearly reading is a muscle that might be exercised constantly and what better way then building it into instruction time.

"Most people don't realize that, between 1990 and 2015, there were substantial improvements in math and reading achievement. And it's clear that test-based accountability is not sufficient to produce the continued improvements we need, but once states started taking their foot off the pedal in 2015 focusing on test-based outcomes, we see the result of declining achievement, especially at the bottom, where a lot of the accountability pressures were being felt."

Seemingly testing has a larger impact on this issue than I realized. Although, I think that this does not promote a love of reading which can play such a big part in the continuation of the skill past high school.

"But I think the solution now is not just about test-based accountability. It's about states piloting ways to lower absenteeism and, as they have already done, piloting ways to lower social media use, and then us learning from those efforts, what are the impact on student achievement, so we can spread what worked."

I understand the impact of these three factors on literacy scores but I am still unsure of how cell phone use in the classroom impacts literacy scores. Is it simply that kids are not paying attention because they are using their phones or that they use their phones to look up interpretations of readings?

There is a clear racial disparity present within this issue which really intensifies the impact.

"To make things worse, the wave of states and districts taking steps to restrict the teaching of so-called critical race theory (CRT), ban books, and censor the ways race can be discussed in schools is curtailing the already limited degree of curricula diversity that is essential in opening students’ hearts and minds, and fuel their engagement and love of reading."

The article explores the reading material itself, and explains the benefits of cultural rich material which is very important for the diversification of perspective.

There seems to be a cascading effect. The pandemic hit, people were assigned less readings and scores declined. Then in order to improve scores, schools implemented more short excerpts to match the testing format to improve test scores which only reduced students capacity for critical thinking and reading full length books.

"The idea is not to remove books but to teach media literacy and add other texts that feel relevant to students, said Seth French, one of the statement’s co-authors. In the English class he taught before becoming a dean last year at Bentonville High School in Arkansas, students engaged with plays, poetry and articles but read just one book together as a class."

The change in educational style is supposedly just to match the times.

Deep reading is essential to strengthen circuits in the brain tied to critical thinking skills, background knowledge — and, most of all, empathy, said Maryanne Wolf, a cognitive neuroscientist at UCLA specializing in dyslexia research.

“We must give our young an opportunity to understand who others are, not through little snapshots, but through immersion into the lives and thoughts and feelings of others,” Wolf said.

Reading is so beneficial for building perspective!

“There was a trend, it happened when COVID hit, to stop reading full-length novels because students were in trauma; we were in a pandemic. The problem is we haven’t quite come back from that,” said Kristy Acevedo, who teaches English at a vocational high school in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

This year, she said she won’t accept that students are too distracted to read. She plans to teach time-management strategies and to use only paper and pencils for most of class time."

Alongside COVID, increased technology use has reduced students stamina.

"Other teachers say the trend stems from standardized testing and the influence of education technology. Digital platforms can deliver a complete English curriculum, with thousands of short passages aligned to state standards — all without having to assign an actual book.

“If admins and school districts are judged by their test scores, how are they going to improve their test scores? They’re going to mirror the test as much as possible,” said Karl Ubelhoer, a middle school special education teacher in Tabernacle, New Jersey."

An unfortunate quick fix for test scores really harms kids in the long term.

"In the long run, the synopsis approach harms students’ critical thinking skills, said Alden Jones, a literature professor at Emerson College in Boston. She assigns fewer books than she once did and gives more quizzes to make sure students do the reading."

"His school has had success encouraging reading through student-directed book clubs, where small groups pick a book and discuss it together. Contemporary authors like John Green and Jason Reynolds have been a big hit.

“It’s funny,” he said. “Many students are saying that it’s the first time in a long time they’ve read a full book.”

A form of the literacy block that also includes students choice of book!

As we lose literacy, we are also losing the value of it which prevents us from attempting to solve this issue.

"According to a 2024 study by Statista.com researcher Veera Korhonen, “a whopping 86 percent [of students] said they were using artificial intelligence tools in their schoolwork. Almost a fourth of them used them on a daily basis.”

A heavy reliance on technology is shown.

"This is not just an issue that concerns education, but rather society as a whole. A people who rely on what they are told rather than thinking for themselves is one that is easily controlled and manipulated. 

This overreliance on AI makes us highly susceptible to misinformation and propaganda. As a result, we can easily become subservient whether we want to or not—nuanced discourse fading into oblivion. 

“If we continue on this path, we’re going to lack the proper foundation for decision-making and critical thinking that’ll be required of us in daily life,” said Cami Martinez (12). "

The effect on critical thinking is shown while also prompting another issue, becoming easily manipulated.

"What does this mean for our future as a nation? For the whole world? It means we’ll be entirely made up of a scarily incompetent workforce that can not think for themselves and ruled by an electorate that can’t distinguish fiction from reality. We’ll be a society that solely depends on machines to simply perform actions that make us human. "

This identifies a stakeholder.