Literacy Challenges for Teachers and Students in Rigorous Courses in Urban High Schools

• In Event: Moving Advanced High School Courses to Poverty-Impacted Urban Settings: Multidisciplinary Research on Rigor, Access, Learning, and Engagement

Abstract

Purpose: This paper examines the literacy challenges facing high school teachers and students participating in a project-based learning (PBL) AP U.S. Government course in two urban high schools. We explore how literacy issues and content interact in rigorous coursework.

Perspectives: As Common Core Standards are implemented and rigorous coursework is increasingly demanded of students in urban schools, teachers are challenged to teach students who may have difficulty reading and writing. According to NAEP (2009), 25% of American youth do not reach basic literacy levels and even fewer reach advanced levels required for learning from complex text. Furthermore, advanced literacy tasks may prove challenging even for those who have previously been considered “on level” (Kamil, et al., 2008). The problem is exacerbated because high school classroom practices often focus on building disciplinary knowledge and skills but may fail to address the literacy knowledge and skills needed for learning from text (Moje & Speyer, 2009). Although recent reports on adolescent literacy offer suggestions for practice, they rarely examine the challenge in poverty-impacted urban school contexts that simultaneously engage rigorous coursework and students who struggle with literacy.

Methods & Data Sources: This qualitative study was conducted in four classrooms across two poverty-impacted city high schools. Classroom observations and interviews with teachers and students documented literacy support and demands as students engaged in class work. We transcribed field notes and interviews, and then analyzed data using constant-comparative methods (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). We also conducted running records and think-aloud protocols with 12 students of diverse reading abilities as they read a text from the end-of-course assessment and five released AP exam questions to determine aspects of reading that might facilitate or inhibit students’ learning. Standardized test scores were also used to examine students’ incoming reading abilities.

Results: Preliminary analyses suggest three main findings. First, the AP textbook was rarely used for learning information or concepts. Although teachers frequently assigned text reading, it was rarely done by students and was not required to receive a good course grade. During class, students used internet sources or handouts—all of which were shorter and easier, and read collaboratively, which generally led to better outcomes. In general, teachers “worked around” the textbook and independent text-based learning. Second, teachers made effective connections between students’ lives and the content but when reading was assigned, little support was provided to help students know how to approach the reading, how the information would be used, or how to study. Teachers seemed not to be aware that some of their students required this support and they wanted to prepare students for the “realities” of college. Finally, reading assessment results revealed a wide range of reading abilities reflecting overall strong decoding and large differences in comprehension. These differences were not accommodated in class instruction or assignments.

Significance: The objective of bringing rigorous curriculum to all students may bring with it unintended consequences of academic failure (and its consequences) unless we can simultaneously support subject matter and literacy learning. Our results provide direction for that work.

Authors

• Sheila Valencia, University of Washington

• Sara Nachtigal, University of Washington