Three Overlooked Reasons Why Children Struggle with Reading

Three overlooked reasons for children’s struggles to read and low test scores include: Unreasonable Expectations, Disabilities and Inclusion, and Fast-Tracking Teachers.

Unreasonable Expectations

Kindergarten has changed over the years. Instead of a half day, it’s a full day. Pressure to read has increased. Some children might show up reading, but it doesn’t mean that all children should be reading by kindergarten.

Expectations for preschoolers and kindergartners have been rising since the 1980s. These higher expectations raised concerns among the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), as described by Bredekamp and Shepard (1989), who noted, even then, a trend toward more formal, teacher-directed drill-and-practice on isolated academic skills with younger and younger children. Phonics drill is not new.

Charlesworth wrote in 1989, “Behind” Before They Start: Deciding How to Deal with the Risk of Kindergarten “Failure.” She questioned the tests given to children.

In 2016, Bassok, Latham, and Rorem asked Is Kindergarten the New First Grade? They questioned the following reports claiming that kindergartners faced mounting pressure to learn, including:

• Miller and Almon, who echoed concerns in Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School;
• Newsweek’s The New First Grade: Too Much Too Soon;
• Bowdon and Desimone’s Teachers College Record: More Work, Less Play in Kindergarten; and
• And Gao’s Kindergarten or “Kindergrind”? School is getting tougher for kids in the Union-Tribune San Diego.

The authors, searching for empirical evidence of how kindergartens had changed, examined numerous variables associated with NCLB and demonstrated that kindergarten classrooms had indeed changed. Kindergarten had become first grade.

But children’s development has not changed. Their brains haven’t evolved to work faster. And if pressure to read in kindergarten is effective, why do so many children experience reading difficulties later? Why do they dislike reading?

Children need to be met where they are when it comes to reading, but learning to read, aside from some prereading skills, should not be the priority in kindergarten. Social skills and learning that school is a joyful experience is what kindergarten used to be about and this should still be the goal.

NCLB highlighted problems with poverty and reading, but it makes little sense to raise expectations higher and push children from poor home environments harder to read. All children require classroom enrichment, great resources and teachers who understand age appropriateness when it comes to learning to read.

Questions about the kindergarten pushdown are out there, but few seem willing to return kindergarten expectations to age-appropriate levels. More and more children will be identified as being behind, made to feel inept at reading, when they continue to be pushed to learn to read before they’re ready.

Disabilities and Inclusion

Since the reauthorization of the Education for All Handicapped Children’s Act to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), students with disabilities are to be placed in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE), and that often means inclusion. Placing children with disabilities in general education has become the norm. It’s important to note also, that Federal law requires 95% test participation of most students, including those with disabilities (FairTest 2017).

This could work if general education teachers are educationally prepared, have small enough class sizes, and collaborate with special education teachers as a team. But some children need more individualized assistance than they get, or they might be placed in front of a computer screen to learn or be grouped with so many children that they’re lost.

Jill Barshay’s 2025 Hechinger Report, Top scholar says evidence for special education inclusion is ‘fundamentally flawed’, reveals that Vanderbilt University’s Douglas Fuchs, the American Institutes for Research, and two other researchers, have a paper to be published in the spring in the Journal of Learning Disabilities. 

In reference to special education, Fuchs states:

Some number of kids with disabilities can and should be in general classrooms. It’s manifestly obvious that they’re doing reasonably well. They should stay there. But for a majority, they need intensive instruction, and we know how to provide intensive instruction. The evidence is, I dare say, overwhelming.

This would be a departure of current practices and include a return to placing some students with disabilities in resource classrooms. LRE should never have ignored the benefits of smaller class sizes and more individualized and small group instruction.

It’s important to note, too, that test scores of students with disabilities are added into the mix of scores reflecting how America’s students are doing in their schools, but many children may need more time and individualized instruction to progress with reading.

Fast Tracking Teachers

A recent positive sounding Guardian report indicated that Gen Z is turning to teaching. However, a closer look at the information shows it’s unclear if this means they’re returning to universities to seriously study teaching.

It highlights Teach for America (TFA) which has hurt the teaching profession by implying that young people can become teachers with 5 weeks of training. Some TFA recruits do return to college to become good teachers, but others use the experience to pad their resumes, or, worse, they move into educational administration positions without ever studying how children learn. It creates a revolving door of instructors and they’re found mostly with children who need well-qualified teachers.

Teachers should come to the classroom from accredited university education programs where they have studied child development, psychology, reading, corrective reading, reading assessment, the level where they’ll be teaching, analyzing programs being marketed, and much more.

For children with reading disabilities, university special education classes have been on the decline since the promotion of inclusion (Gilmour et al. 2023).

According to Artiles (2021), the number of children with disabilities has risen, but university programs studying various disability areas have decreased. General teacher programs may provide condensed special education classes, but less investment in special education preparation programs, researchers, and teacher education faculty has led to fewer well-prepared special educators.

He states:

Spanning several generations, leadership preparation programs in special education have produced the faculty that generate research knowledge and prepare special education teachers. Unfortunately, the challenges facing these programs have reached crisis proportions as reflected in stagnant federal funding and a reduction in the number of doctoral programs. In turn, teacher shortages are significantly impacted by declines in the supply of leadership personnel and faculty to staff teacher education programs.

This is alarming for children with disabilities who need teachers to understand corrective reading practices and the needs of children with reading difficulties.

Teachers must study for an extended period and spend time student-teaching under the guidance of a seasoned professional teacher with proven success. Programs to make teachers fast won’t do. All students deserve well-prepared teachers with university instruction in theory and practice.

________

Unreasonable expectations, disabilities and inclusion, and fast-track teaching all take a toll on how children learn and more specifically, how they learn to read.

References 

Bredekamp, S., & Shepard, L. (1989). How best to protect children from inappropriate school expectations, practices, and policies. Young Children, 44(3), 14–24.

Charlesworth, R. (1989). “Behind” Before They Start?: Deciding How To Deal With the Risk of Kindergarten “Failure.” Young Children, 44(3), 5–13.

Gao H. (2005, April 11). Kindergarten or “kindergrind”? School getting tougher for kids. Union-Tribune San Diego. Retrieved from http://legacy.utsandiego.com/news/education/20050411-9999-1n11kinder.html

Bassok, D., Latham, S., & Rorem, A. (2016). Is Kindergarten the New First Grade? AERA Open, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858415616358

Gilmour, A. F., Shanks, C., & Winters, M. A. (2023). Choice, Mobility, and Classification: Disaggregating the Charter School Special Education Gap. Remedial and Special Education, 44(4), 272–282. https://doi.org/10.1177/07419325221115421