Why can’t millions of US adults read?

Education Week reports that “Millions of Adults Lack Basic Reading Skills Needed for Good Jobs.”

Employers already know this, but why is it happening? The article provides a clue as one of the individuals interviewed says:

“I don't think I should have got a high school graduation diploma because I couldn't read or write. They pushed me along."

That is clearly a school problem. And, with serious questions being asked today about whether all of our teachers really know how to teach reading properly, it’s a question that needs some answers.

For some of those answers, check our earlier blog about “Ed Week: ‘College of Education Now Prepares Teachers in the Science of Reading.’” It talks about some interesting action in one state to turn the reading mess around. I wish that state was Kentucky, but it isn’t. After we see how the program in Arkansas works out, maybe Kentucky will get better reading instruction, too.