Expecting More: Increasing Text Complexity
Mark Pennington recently published a great piece on the importance of teaching increasingly complex levels of text to U.S. students. Taking his cue from the Common Core Standards Initiative, Pennington argues that:
1. Text complexity is the most important variable in reading comprehension.
2. The level of text complexity in the post-secondary world has remained constant or increased over the past fifty years.
3. The K-12 level of text complexity has decreased over the past fifty years.
The implications are clear: the text demands of college and career are increasing and students may find themselves increasingly unable to handle the text demands of real-world reading. (more…)
