Comments on Redeafined: Debunking the "Fourth Grade Reading Level" Statistic

This is a good article to us which is very essenti...

2015-05-17T13:43:53.404-04:00

This is a good article to us which is very essential to me as well because I always write in the Debunking the "Fourth Grade Reading Level" Statistic which is very important to custom writing services and I must follow the discussion which will be very informative to me.

As an ADA advocate, I often encounter doctors deny...

2015-04-07T23:10:19.921-04:00

As an ADA advocate, I often encounter doctors denying patients the services of a sign language interpreter, asserting that they were able to effectively communicate with the patient by passing notes back and forth. I readily acknowledge that there are individuals who are deaf who read and write English well, but remain concerned about those members of the deaf community who use sign language as their primary means of communication, who do not read and write English above a 4th grade level, and when trying to do so, do not have the vocabulary and syntax in English that would result in effective communication. I am concerned that by asserting that passing notes back and forth results in effective communication, when it does not for many members of the deaf community, it creates the incorrect impression, especially among health care professionals, that they do not have to provide sign language services to patients and companions who are deaf, who rely on sign language as their primary means of communication. This does a disservice to the deaf community, and makes ADA advocacy more difficult. I would appreciate getting your thoughts on this. Write to me at mdubin@pobox.com, and follow me on Twitter at @ADAexpertise.

The Early Intervention issue is why I'm such a...

2014-04-13T15:55:50.425-04:00

The Early Intervention issue is why I'm such a big fan of parents using Cued Speech - since it's communication with visual English.

"Several reasons, really. Firstly, the statis...

2013-05-06T18:04:20.960-04:00

"Several reasons, really. Firstly, the statistics from 2000 would represent 12th graders born in 1988"

I was born in 1988, and in the year 2000 I was 12 years old...not a 12th grader...

You're definitely right that the original stat...

2013-03-05T18:39:40.034-05:00

You're definitely right that the original statistic appears at some point before the 2000 study;however, we're more concerned with debunking the most recent statistic, rather than quarreling over the ones already obsolete due to their 20+ years outdatedness.
Thanks for the feedback. And thanks for reading! :)

I agree that this statistic has frequently been mi...

2013-03-03T11:16:15.269-05:00

I agree that this statistic has frequently been misused to advance a particular agenda (probably all agendas, at one time or another!). But I want to note that I can distinctly remember seeing this "average 3rd to 4th grade reading level" being used back in the 1980s, and it was already being thrown about as a "commonly known" figure. So I know it did not originate with that study in 2000, this statistic goes back MUCH further than this ... probably even earlier than the 1980s, because that's just when I first noticed it as a teenager old enough to start noticing these things.

Any chance that someone out there has researched more closely where the original statistic really comes from? I think in order to really explode the myth for once and for all might require a more detailed history of how this got started and how it proliferated. Of course this should be supplemented by whatever the true facts are to the best they are known.

: )

2013-03-01T14:58:41.285-05:00

: )

Hi Madeline. Thanks for reading. We never suggeste...

2013-02-28T12:11:46.835-05:00

Hi Madeline. Thanks for reading. We never suggested that the average US adult read at a 5th grade reading level; in fact, we cited the same statistic you've brought up here. In any case, we've checked the article to make sure everything reads more clearly. We appreciate your input!

I enjoyed reading your article and was planning on...

2013-02-28T04:37:28.803-05:00

I enjoyed reading your article and was planning on using it as the basis for my final paper in a class at Gally. However, after further examination, I realized that it is very misleading. Using the citation that the average hearing 12th grader reads at a 5th grade level as the means for comparison to debunk the "4th grade reading level statistic" is misrepresenting the facts. The study that is referenced found that of the top 40 books assigned to 12th graders to read, most are written at the 5th grade reading level. This finding does not represent the actual reading level of the average 12th grader which, according to the National Adult Literacy Survey and the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, is around 9th grade. Also, while it is important to note that there are plenty of highly successful Deaf/HoH readers and published authors, the median and mean reading level of Deaf/HoH high school graduates has been about 4th grade for the past 3 decades. It is important to note though that the most recent study confirming the "4th grade statistic" was performed in 2003. Therefore, the participants of the study would have been born in the mid-1980's, at a time when the average time of detection of deafness was between 2.5-3 years (it's currently around 11 months), putting these students at a clear disadvantage to their peers who were exposed to language from birth. Compounding the issue, Deaf/HoH children are read to less often and are less likely to be surround by people who are fluent in their natural language (ASL, of course). Children who are identified as Deaf/HoH early and receive early intervention can expect to develop grade-level literacy skills.

Median is one statistic of three (median, mode, me...

2012-09-19T19:51:46.805-04:00

Median is one statistic of three (median, mode, mean) that represents an average of a range of numbers, therefore the 4th grade reading level being reported as an 'average' is still accurate. The larger issue here is the inaccurate implying or perceiving of the median representing ALL deaf students having a 4th grade reading level when in fact half do have a better than 4th grade reading level.

Excellent article redeafined. Enlightening and ex...

2012-05-30T18:34:51.678-04:00

Excellent article redeafined. Enlightening and extremely constructive. I'm not sure what Miss Kat is trying to say... The article is actually highlighting the issues--portraying them accurately--and then encouraging more modern and appropriate educational approaches using both ASL and English as a solution. Very good.

Miss Kat's parents- Thanks for your comment. Y...

2012-05-28T13:01:54.462-04:00

Miss Kat's parents- Thanks for your comment. You're right; though we didn't specifically mention it, it's implied by the statistic that 50% of deaf students reading above the 4th grade level also means there are 50% of students reading at or below that level. Obviously, as noted in the post, we have a lot of work to to do in the field of reading education for deaf children (and hearing ones, for that matter). The concern with this post was mainly to dispel the incorrect quotation of the statistic as 1. an average reading level and 2. a measure specific to signing children's reading levels, of which it is neither.

You don't mention that the stats would show th...

2012-05-25T19:57:59.478-04:00

You don't mention that the stats would show that 50% of the deaf students are therefore reading at BELOW the level of a 4th grader. And the test was not testing "at grade level" but actually comparing the score vs the score of the average hearing student in 4th grade. So to be clearer, it is not that they are reading at the 4th grade level, but that they are scoring the same on a reading test as an average hearing 4th grade student.