At White Plains Highlands Middle School in Westchester, New York, first-year teacher Kylie Gilroy is facing a challenge she didn’t expect: many of her seventh-grade students struggle with basic reading and writing.
“They don’t know how to write complete sentences, especially compound ones,” Gilroy said.
As an English Language Learner-heavy class, the gap in skills is clear. Gilroy finds herself reading aloud more often, just to help them comprehend the material.
Gilroy, a recent SUNY Cortland graduate majoring in adolescent English education, observes her students struggling every day with not only academics but also with behavior and communication skills, which only complicate their learning experience.
For education majors graduating from SUNY Cortland this May, what can you expect when you step into the classroom as a first-year teacher? Will you face similar challenges to Gilroy’s? And how might literacy struggles contribute to behavior issues?
Every year the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as The Nation’s Report Card, conducts state testing in public and private schools across the country for students in grades four, eight, and 12. NAEP is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what the nation’s students know and can do in select subject areas such as reading, writing, mathematics, and science.
The most recent NAEP testing in 2024 assessed students in grades four and eight on reading assessment skills. They found that the average reading score for the nation in eighth grade has declined two points since 2022 and five points since 2019, showing a decreasing trend.
According to research done by Southern Oregon University, the decline in reading scores raises concerns about how literacy, which includes more than just reading and writing, affects students’ ability to communicate and handle everyday tasks.
The correlation between reading literacy and communication skills are prominent in all students, regardless of grade level. SOU published the article “The Role of Literacy in Effective Communication” emphasizing that literacy is much more than just the ability to read and write.
“Students need literacy to participate in everyday life, and reading fluency impacts students’ ability to be successful in school and beyond,” said SOU. “Literacy encompasses reading books but also text messages, emails, labels and street signs—and the same is true for writing.”
Gilroy observes the link between literacy skills and everyday life in her students daily.
Due to the decline in reading and writing comprehension, Gilroy remains concerned about the diminishing communication skills and the rise in behavioral issues among students nationwide.
“Student behaviors are becoming more and more prominent,” said Gilroy. “Over 50% of the population at Highlands have a 504 plan—only for behavioral needs.”
As literacy skills decline, students are struggling to interact, behave, and communicate in the classroom, often requiring 504 plans to support their behavior.
How can a SUNY Cortland education major prepare for the below-grade-level academics and life skills that students may bring with them into the classroom?
“Whenever we would do assignments around standards [during undergraduate level classes], we would work with the on-grade-level material. However, a majority of my students now are not on grade level,” said Gilroy. “I believe that if we would’ve had more opportunities to differentiate assignments after making them on-grade-level, that would have prepared me more.”
Gilroy suggests current SUNY Cortland education majors to not only create on-grade-level material but also go the extra mile by developing below-grade-level material, since that will likely be encountered in future classrooms and can only help to prepare future teachers.
Middle and high school teachers may encounter this in the English classroom, but what about where it all begins—in kindergarten?
Brooke Farrell, a senior SUNY Cortland early childhood/childhood major with a concentration in humanities, is currently a student teacher in Dryden at Cassavant Elementary School for Kindergarten students. Farrell emphasized the struggles students are facing, even at the age of four and five.
“Whether students are struggling to read and write more commonly because of COVID-19 or because their guardians are not spending as much time helping them outside of school it is raising concerns,” Farrell said. “Students are spending an increased amount of time on technology instead of reading and writing at home, as past students did, which is not helping the decline.”
The increase in technology is not only seen as an issue in New York but across the country. As reported by Education Week, the article “Screen Time Up as Reading Scores Drop. Is There a Link?” demonstrates the connection between an increase in screen time to a decrease in reading skills, as Farrell suggested.
“Children have become much more immersed in their technologies than we ever thought they would be,” said Patricia Alexander, an education professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, who studies print and digital reading development. “And yet essentially what we’re doing is putting tablets in the hands of kindergartners and assuming they will know how to regulate their use of them. And none of that sits well with the data.”
Alexander emphasizes that studies have also found higher screen time linked to worse sleep habits and eyesight, poorer attention, and lower academic progress in students.
The toll of students’ academic levels and social skills on teachers can be draining some days, Gilroy said. She recommends all first-year teachers create a “why” folder.
“Anytime a student writes you a note, draws you something, gets you a card, or gives you something they made in art class, put it in the folder,” Gilroy said. “We all became teachers for a reason, but sometimes we need that reminder.”