The Powers That Be are continually increasing the minimum standards for each grade level. Our curriculum in every grade is becoming harder and harder and reading scores are not up to par according to the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP). There is only a minimal difference in the scores from 2013 (which are stated on the audio-visual presentation; go here to see) and those in 2015. In fact, the scores in 2015 were 2 points lower at grade 8.
The NAEP states that 32% of 4th graders in the United States scored Below Basic in Reading and only 35% were considered Proficient readers in the United States.
In the list of Fry’s First 100 Most Common words, only 18% can be sounded using the basic 26 letter sounds that we teach in kindergarten. Any typical reading text is not much different. That means that 82% of words that children encounter have a dirty Trick in them! A Trick that will make it impossible for the child to “sound it out” unless they know the Trick! The Word Queen can teach them these dirty Tricks!
Have you guessed the reason for the highlighted words? These are the only words that can be sounded using the basic 26 letter sounds we teach in kindergarten. Only ten words used 26 times (in, and, up, from, on, fact, at, can, text, it). This is about 14%. Test a child’s text. You’ll find it is also not much different.