If They Can’t Read, There Is No Portrait

A Question I Keep Coming Back To

Across New York State, districts are creating Portraits of a Graduate.

The language is inspiring. Schools want graduates who are critical thinkers, effective communicators, collaborators, and problem solvers. The vision is thoughtful and well-intentioned.

But I keep coming back to a simple question.

What does a portrait of a graduate mean if a student cannot read proficiently?

Because every single competency in a portrait of a graduate depends on literacy.

Critical thinking requires reading complex ideas. Communication requires understanding and analyzing texts. Civic engagement requires reading information and evaluating sources. Learning new knowledge requires reading across disciplines.

Reading is not just another skill in the system.

It is the foundation that allows all other learning to happen.

The Data We Cannot Ignore

When we look at national data, the picture becomes clearer.

According to the NAEP, only 32 percent of students were considered proficient in reading.

That means the majority of students in the United States are reading below the level associated with strong comprehension of grade-level text. This reality shows up in classrooms every day.

Students are asked to read primary sources in history, complex explanations in science, novels in English, and technical texts in career programs. When students struggle to read these materials accurately and efficiently, the work quickly becomes inaccessible.

When the text becomes inaccessible, engagement disappears.

Not because students do not care.Not because teachers are not trying. But because the reading itself is too difficult.

The Secondary Literacy Assumption

For decades we have treated reading as something that happens primarily in elementary school. The assumption is that students learn to read in the early grades and then shift to reading to learn.

But that assumption does not match what we see in secondary classrooms.

Many students arrive in middle and high school with lingering gaps in word recognition, decoding multisyllabic words, reading fluency, and vocabulary knowledge. These gaps may have been manageable in earlier grades. As texts become more complex, those gaps become barriers.

Shanahan has written extensively about this shift. As students move into the upper grades, the demands of reading increase significantly. Text becomes denser. Vocabulary becomes more specialized. Knowledge demands increase. Students are expected to read independently and deeply across multiple disciplines.

When students cannot read the words on the page with accuracy and efficiency, those increasing demands quickly overwhelm them. The problem is not that secondary teachers are unaware of this. The problem is that schools often operate under the assumption that reading instruction is finished.

It is not.

If students are still developing the skills needed to read complex text, secondary schools cannot simply hope those skills will improve on their own. Ignoring the issue does not solve it. It simply allows the gap to widen as the demands of school increase.

The Responsibility of Secondary Schools

Conversations about literacy in middle and high school sometimes trigger the same concern.

“Are you asking content teachers to teach students how to read?”

That question misses the larger issue.

The real question is this:

What happens when students cannot read the texts we ask them to learn from?

In many schools, the answer has quietly become avoidance. Texts are simplified. Reading is replaced with videos. Teachers summarize instead of asking students to read independently. Complex materials are reduced so students can keep up with the class.

These decisions are understandable. Teachers are trying to help students succeed.

But the unintended consequence is that the underlying problem remains.

If schools never address the reading difficulty itself, students continue to move through the system without the skills they need to access increasingly complex knowledge.

Secondary schools cannot assume that literacy problems will resolve themselves. If students reach middle or high school without strong reading skills, schools must respond intentionally and systematically.

Literacy Is the Equity Work

If we are serious about equity, literacy has to be part of the conversation.

When students cannot read proficiently, they are locked out of opportunity long before graduation. They struggle to access knowledge in school. They struggle to navigate college coursework. They struggle to enter training programs and careers that require complex reading.

Students who read well gain access to information, ideas, and opportunities. Students who struggle with reading face barriers in nearly every academic and professional pathway.

Literacy is not simply an academic skill.

It is access to knowledge. It is access to opportunity.

And if schools do not address literacy when gaps remain in the secondary grades, we risk graduating students who have completed school but have not gained full access to the learning it was meant to provide.

When we know better, we teach better.

See you next Sunday!

References

National Center for Education Statistics. (2024). The Nation’s report card: Reading 2024 highlights. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. https://www.nationsreportcard.gov

Shanahan, T. (2020). Understanding disciplinary literacy. Harvard Education Press.

Shanahan, T., & Shanahan, C. (2008). Teaching disciplinary literacy to adolescents: Rethinking content area literacy. Harvard Educational Review, 78(1), 40–59. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.78.1.v62444321p602101