While the Common Core State Standards provide direction for reading education, they never explicitly mention online reading skills. Students use the Internet to read quite often, whether it's digesting news articles or doing research for class. Because online reading is so prevalent, students should read via the Internet as well as when they pick up a book. However, as with reading paper copy, an achievement gap exists. A study from the University of Connecticut revealed that students from economically disadvantaged districts aren't as good at reading online as students from economically advantaged districts.
Discovering the gap
Researchers studied students at two separate school districts, each of which had the same access to computers and an Internet connection. One district had a higher median family income, lower percentage of students eligible for free or reduced lunches, and lower ratio of students living below the poverty line than the other. Students who were in junior high were asked to read online articles about science and write reports on their findings through email and a classroom wiki site.
Students from the economically advantaged district performed about twice as well as students in the disadvantaged district. The former group answered about 50 percent of questions correctly while the latter only answered 25 percent correctly.
Alarm about online reading
Researchers also analyzed standardized test scores students earned for reading material not presented online. After comparing offline reading skills to online abilities, researchers discovered that in both districts, students needed improvement in Internet reading.
"The results of this study show a new, separate and independent achievement gap for online reading," Donald Leu, Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology and the study's lead author, said in a statement." This type of reading is not adequately recognized by schools in most states, and yet it will define our students' future."
Students increasingly use online sources to learn information for school or homework, but they do not absorb the information as well as when it is presented on paper. Furthermore, the study noted that students generally struggled with discerning whether an online source was credible and expressing their findings on Web-based platforms. Researchers said that while this generation of students is well-versed in the use of online technology (they carry smartphones, have grown up with tablets and text frequently), they are not showing the same capabilities with online reading.
Considering new reading education
The study's results highlighted that schools should consider teaching online reading skills in addition to Common Core reading. By developing students' online- and paper-reading abilities, they should, in theory, become well rounded.
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