Imagine siting in your English class. Your teacher tells you to pull out your book report book and read. You look around all of your classmates are reading their books. You shamefully look down to the floor because you don’t understand.

Unfortunately this happens way to much in high schools. In fact one in eight high school students are illiterate. How is this even possible? How do we go about fixing this problem?

“It is a problem that should be addressed a lot sooner than high school. I don’t always deal with kids that have this problem because I teach honors but when I do I try to give these students different assignments and track their reading progress. There could be a lot of reasons why this has happened. A lot of times grades are inflated because there is a lot of pressure on teachers to give kids high grades and not fail them. Sometimes kids get too old for middle school and they get moved to high school.” Stated Ms. Ballard, an English teacher

Ms. Mackness also agrees with Ms. Ballard and says “The issue needs to be addressed in elementary school; students can be helped quickly. Students need to be working intensely with teachers who are specifically trained (I’m reffering to years, not a few weeks or few months) in working with learning/language challenges. To address students in middle and upper schools; the same solution is appropriate, but the results do not come by as quickly as they do in the elementary setting. Teachers are not trained to teach language challenges effectively in many colleges and universities and the state doesn’t recognize the need to find teachers who are trained to hire them to work with the struggling readers. Teaching students with language challenges is different than teaching content; and it requires a completely different set of strategies that come only with lots of specific, intense instruction. Knowledge of issues with visual and auditory processing, knowledge of the English language, lots of experience working with students with language issues, knowledge of challenges with excutive function skills, and lots of direct mentoring by experienced teachers who are effective and successful; thes are some of the key components of an effective prepartation for instructing students wit learning challenges. Major changes are needed and changes don’t usually happen very quickly I the dept of Education.

Mrs. Paradis also an English teacher commented and said “The first step is to identify who the kids are, I do this by giving a diagnostic reading test. Based on the median reading level I will plan my year. Encouraging students to go to the library and check out books of their choice along with implementing silent reading time in class gives the students reading practice and a choice of what they