Young Americans Reading Less

This seems like at least an annual event -- a study showing that Americans -- particularly the up and coming generation -- aren't reading. Today the National Endowment for the Arts released a meta-study examining data from the U.S. Department of Education and other sources finding that leisure reading is declining, especially among late-teens and twenty somethings. The guts from WaPo:

The NEA reports that in 2006, 15-to-24-year-olds spent just 7 to 10 minutes a day voluntarily reading anything at all.

Bad, but here's what's really disturbing:

It also notes that between 1992 and 2003, the percentage of college graduates who tested as "proficient in reading prose" declined from 40 percent to 31 percent.

Here's how it's happening:

The percentage of 9-year-olds who say they "read almost every day for fun," the NEA report notes, rose slightly, from 53 percent to 54 percent, between 1984 and 2004. During roughly the same time period, average reading scores for 9-year-olds rose sharply. But the percentage of 17-year-olds reading almost every day for fun dropped from 31 percent in 1984 to 22 percent in 2004, with average reading scores showing steady declines.

That, by the way, tracks school proficiency data generally. American kids are generally doing well in K-5, then start to lose their way in middle school and lag behind peers in other countries in high school. And why is this happening? We can't say definitively it is the obvious culprit, but:

Iyengar emphasized that the NEA's data can show correlations but cannot prove a causal relationship between reading decline and, say, the proliferation of electronic media.

The other obvious discussion point is -- what of the internet? The NEA has been criticized in the past for not acknowledging online reading. Two problems this go round. First, the decline in reading proficiency is a problem no matter what the platform.

Second, electronic communications in the late 2.0 era are less conducive to practicing reading -- and writing for that matter. This Slate story confirms what I've been noticing; that kids are not surfing and emailing so much as IM'ing, chatting and texting. The latter are basically electronic versions of verbal conversation, not actual writing and reading of what anyone would call prose. A couple friends of mine teach remedial writing to college students. They have found it necessary to teach their students that it is not acceptable to spell "you" as "u." OMG its FUBAR. Thz kds CUS.

BTW, I don't remember who to h/t -- Publisher's MarketPlace dropped it in their Lunch email, as has area blogger Keith who suggests the solution is more David Drake. At least one other non-primary source referenced it. I tip my hat to you all.

Ohio's Crappy Charter School System, Exhibit 4395

. . . is a story in today's Dispatch that millions in charter school start up money cannot be accounted for. Specifically, $2.55 million in "planning grants" went to schools that were never actually set up.

The Ohio Charter School system was set up to act exactly like a free market. OK, a free market in which the government pays for the "customers" and paid some of the set up costs of the "businesses." That kind of market. An Iraq reconstruction kind of market.

Charter school advocates try not to talk about Ohio. In other states charter schools actually work -- so much so that liberals like the purveyors of EduWonk and Quick and the Ed like them. But in Ohio the system yields one failure after another. That's why an editorial in Minnesota about charter school accountability notes that, "Ohio seems to have more problems than other states, but it is a good reminder that we need charter schools to be accountable."

So what can we learn from this? First, we can learn that the pure free market model does not work. In particular, during late-nineties and early 00's, the guiding philosophy was to let anyone who could fog a mirror set up a charter school and let the market sort them out. That has given us dozens of chronically failing schools that thus far can only be shut down when they run out of money.

And now we have another problem. Ohio apparently gave money out without vetting the recipients. Exactly no one familiar with the history of Ohio charters is surprised.

By the way, a second problem with the free market model is the cost of letting the market do its magic. Businesses in a market don't automatically succeed because they are in a market. A market works by forcing bad businesses to close. That's fine when we are talking about, say, electronics stores. When Fretter and Sun closed up shop, they did little permanent damage to the polity. But when a school closes down, it causes considerable disruption to the families involved and to the public school system that has to absorb children who have not been receiving a decent education. A third is that changing vendor involved considerable transaction costs. And a fourth is the Market for Bad Education.

Carnival of Ohio Politics #91

Jill has the goods. For whatever reason, people respond well on her weeks so we have 19 contributors this week. I'm up next week; maybe we can maintain the momentum.

It's Bush's Fault I Have to Listen to Troothers.

Loved this from Kevin Cleary on The Quick and the Ed:

This just shows one of the unfortunate side effects of the Bush Administration--over the last two or three years, a whole lot of intellectually lazy and half-paranoid conspiracy theories about things like warmongering and destruction of civil liberties and what have you turned out to be more or less true. Which gives credence to other facile theories that aren't true. I realize this isn't nearly as problematic as the actual foreign policy fiascos, assaults on the Constitution, etc., but it still makes my life difficult.

The subject is a new push for standardized proficiency testing to evaluate and "reform" higher education. The idea itself is, I think, a dozen kinds of silly. Among other things, we should first get the testing/reform thing down in K-12 which we clearly haven't yet. Still, there is no shortage of paranoid raving about the plan. In addition to the conversation Cleary cites, check out this on Schools Matter.

And of course Cleary's rant can be applied to Troothers and, yes, Stolen Election Guy. Every time a voting machine goes screwy, certain factions cut immediately to a scene of Republican operatives manipulating code in a hundred thousand precincts from an undisclosed location. Thankfully, cooler heads occasionally prevail, like this piece from Cindy on AOG which notes a problem, proposes a solution and calls for vigilance.

I'm all about vigilance. But just because they are out to get you doesn't mean it's OK to be paranoid.

What I'm Doing These Days

Those of you who have been following the Pages for a while have also followed my search for some sort of gainful, satisfying and compatible with stay-at-home-daddage employment. You've watched me try community organizing, political consulting and part-time academia. This last is still going on -- I'll be teaching again next semester at least.


And I've been working on something else. For some time some people, sufficiently impressed with what goes on here, have been encouraging me to try writing. And now I have. I just started putting my name out when my first couple of contracts landed on my doorstep. Catalyst Cleveland -- a nonprofit magazine covering urban education -- has expanded to statewide operation as Catalyst Ohio. I was aware this was happening and had spoken to the editor, Charlise Lyles as they were planning the move and was planning to get in touch once my ducks were reasonably lined up. As it happens, she found out I was freelancing and got in touch. My first piece will appear in the next issue and I'm working on the second now.

Let me add here that this is not the usual path for a beginning freelancer. The usual path involves lots of rejection and self-doubt and wondering when you will ever get your first paying job. I understand how fortunate I've been thus far.

The new career move will mean a couple of changes for the blog. First of all, I plan on blogging education a bit more than I've been. I noted before that being employed by an advocacy group made me uncomfortable about taking nuaced positions on things like charter schools. Not that Ohio Fair Schools ever tried to constrain me, but I did voluntarily constrain myself. You might notice the new My Game Is Ed category on the blogroll. Look for that to get more heavily populated and for my opinions about what goes on in the education blog world.

It also means that posting my at times be spotty, particularly as deadlines approach. I'm hoping things will be a little better next semester as my class is a little less labor intensive, but of course if I get more writing jobs, things may be more hectic.

I'll also mention here for anyone interested in retaining the services of a lawyer-turned-writer with expertise in education, politics, local government and criminal law, my email is pho197[at]hotmail[dot]com.

Finally, a plug for my new client. I've been reading Catalyst Cleveland for a couple of years. Now that it is Catalyst Ohio, the magazine will hopefully be an indispensible resource for anyone concerned about urban education, or education in general. The magazine strives to examine issues objectively, giving time to all sides. And best of all, subscriptions are free. Surf on over and sign up.

A Half-Good Idea for Veterans Day.

State Treasurer Richard Cordray has recently been softening the ground for a proposed ballot issue to benefit veterans. Someone has posted about the plan on the community section of Progress Ohio.

Cordray's idea is a ballot issue to allow Ohio to issue bonds so that we can pay out bonuses to returning war veterans. Helping veterans is hard to argue against -- men and women who have seen combat have endured hardships and seen horrors most of us can't imagine to keep us free and safe. Still, I have some reservations.

First and foremost, an idea this popular should be paid for. Issuing bonds may make sense for development projects that, in theory at least, will pay for themselves in the form on economic growth and increased revenue. Then you can at least pretend that the result is a net gain for the state. A program like this on the other hand should be paid for up front. If the people of Ohio want to benefit veterans, we should, but we shouldn't be adding to the debt to do it.

I also have reservations generally about the state making up for Federal shortfalls in veterans benefits. It's a familiar refrain by now -- the administration claims they support our troops while in theater, but has little interest in providing them sufficient resources when they get out. It's a tricky stand to take: I wouldn't want to thwart political will to benefit Ohio's vets just based on the Bush Admin's dereliction, but at the same time, I bristle at the thought of letting them off the hook.

Notwithstanding the above, thanks to all who serve and have served in our armed forces, and a very good Veterans Day to you all.

Rev. Tracy Lind Not Nominated to Be Bishop

The Rev. Tracy Lind, Dean of Cleveland's Trinity Cathedral, was in the running to be elected the second openly gay bishop in the American Episcopal Church. Today the Chicago diocese selected another of the eight candidates after two rounds of voting. Rev. Lind finished fourth on both of the ballots.

The Episcopal Church has been struggling to resolve the controversy between liberal and conservative factions over gay clergy. As a result, Rev. Lind's candidacy has received national media attention. Had she been voted in by the Chicago Diocese, she would have had to pass additional hurdles and her candidacy certainly would have heightened the controversies in the church.