Becoming a literacy leader: the root cause of poor student achievement in our secondary schools is poor literacy skills. There is help for administrators who want to implement a comprehensive literacy approach.

Throughout the state, middle and high school principals, district office administrators and teachers are grappling with the challenge of supporting standards-based curricula for students who do not have the basic skills to read and comprehend classroom text. The 2002 data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress indicate that more than 35 percent of fourth-grade students in the U.S. lack basic reading skills. What are the implications for secondary schools?

Upon entering high school, 25 percent of students still lack basic reading skills, about 40 percent lack the skills necessary to access grade-level text across all content areas, and an additional 30 percent lack the ability to critically examine or elaborate upon what they have read.

These data are not surprising to California's high school and middle school educators. Every day, teachers are forced to find different ways to teach content, knowing that large numbers of their students are unable to read or comprehend their texts. We must face the fact that the root cause of poor student achievement in our secondary schools is poor reading and literacy skills.

In recent years, well-deserved attention and resources have been given to K-3 reading instruction. However, there has not been the same sense of urgency at the secondary level. Yet the data continue to tell us that we need to incorporate basic reading skills and strategies into the everyday middle and high school curricula. If people continue to disbelieve the data, they should talk to faculty at our California State Universities and at the University of California about incoming students' reading and literacy skills and the effect they have on these students while in college.

More progress needed at secondary level

Last spring, I attended a meeting with a group of literacy leaders who have been working with secondary schools and districts in California for the past three years as part of the Support for Secondary Schools in Reading grant program. These educators reported some progress is being made at the secondary level to confront the literacy crisis.

Some middle and high schools have taken the lead and have started by implementing intensive interventions to teach basic reading skills. Others have introduced interventions to teach students strategies to access content area text. However, very few schools and districts have implemented a comprehensive approach that is schoolwide and districtwide. Why not?

The challenges of being a school literacy leader

The No. 1 challenge of being a secondary school literacy leader is finding resources, including time. Today's administrators, especially principals, face many challenges in their roles as instructional leaders. Their plates are full and somehow more seems to be added every day. Now add secondary literacy!

Most secondary principals admit that often their daily activities have little to do with improving and supporting classroom instruction. In terms of schoolwide literacy, the reality for busy site and district administrators is finding money, resources and time to design and conduct a comprehensive, research-based professional development system while juggling all of the other requirements of running a school or a division in a school district.

The second challenge is the system. It is necessary to understand that implementing a comprehensive, schoolwide literacy approach means that administrators must challenge every aspect of the existing system. Most secondary schools continue to operate within an outdated model that includes an inflexible master schedule and traditional beliefs about instructional delivery, professional development and resource allocation. These "systems barriers" are the stumbling blocks that secondary principals and district office administrators face when attempting to meet the reading and literacy needs of all students.

Secondary Literacy Support Network

In 2001, WestEd created the Secondary Literacy Support Network to support secondary principals and district office administrators who do not have the money, resources and time to design and conduct a comprehensive, research-based, professional development system with reading and literacy at the core.

SLSN was created to assist those schools and districts that were ready and committed to implementing a comprehensive literacy approach and ready to challenge the existing system. The design of SLSN was built on the belief that most secondary schools have "pieces and parts" of a reading/literacy program, but few have made the changes to their systems that are necessary to meet the literacy needs of students schoolwide.

SLSN is a step-by-step, systems approach to professional development. It is a quality professional development series that enhances administrator skills to be literacy leaders. It provides a framework that guides principals and their schools th rough a process of diagnosis, intervention, data analysis and implementation support in order to address students who can't, don't or won't read.

SLSN has pulled literacy and systems pieces together so that principals, district office administrators and teachers can make informed decisions about implementing a comprehensive literacy approach. This approach places heavy emphasis on implementation, with monitoring, support and accountability,

SLSN staff members, along with a cadre of respected experts in the field of literacy, all contribute as trainers during the 13-day SLSN professional development series, which qualifies for the practicum as part of AB 75 training. Our trainers work as a team and as individuals to present the SLSN training modules and provide technical assistance and coaching on site to middle and high schools. Participants can earn college credit as a result of this training series.

SLSN staff and consultants have worked with schools throughout California and the U.S. to improve literacy instruction for middle schools and high schools, including English learners and other diverse student populations.

Middle and high school principals who are contemplating a comprehensive literacy approach should contact WestEd for more information. WestEd can provide a list of principals, county and district office administrators and teachers from the 45 schools and districts that have already participated in the SLSN professional development series and are implementing schoolwide literacy interventions at this very moment.

Donna Covey is a senior research associate and director of the Secondary Literacy Support Network (www.wested.org/pub/docs/617) at WestEd. Covey served as a middle and high school principal and supervisor of secondary education for 12 years in the Antioch Unified School District. She can be contacted at [e-mail]