Why do native english speaking american kids score less than non-native speaking kids in reading?
447996
for one thing,americans are spoiled. it's true.  people come here from other countries and they work harder than most americans because we are complacent.
572832
Depends on the generation. First generation who do not speak that good English fare worse because of the language barrier. 2nd generation do very well but I don't think it is due to TV but to their parents. They want their children to succeed in education because they did not.\nI actually did a research project on this in grad school last week and this was what I found.
223936
Perhaps they didn't have the benefit of your excellent education, Maybe english isn't their first language. Maybe they're just not too bright! It takes all sorts.
202010
Kids Speak A Different Langauge And Dont Understand What Parents Say
765464
It is called the dumbing down of the American society! As a nation we can only assimilate so many non-English speaking immigrants. Because of the overload of immigrants dumped into the school systems, the focus has shifted to learning English rather than learning correct grammar and an advanced vocabulary.  The curriculum has to be watered down, or better yet Dumbed Down to a level that they can then understand at their grammar level. \nMix this with a bunch of people who cry for illegal immigrants rights to an education, even though statistics show that they will most likely drop out and prove that they were a waste of an education anyways. \nBAM! A DUMBED DOWN society where our children are not able to focus on the basics of proper English and writing skills because little "Juan" couldn't keep up and it was against his rights for others to be taught more than he is able to learn because of his initial inability to speak, read or write in English!
423743
I've been seriously puzzled by many many questions here.  I think younger kids assume we just know what they're talking about, as if we know all of their friends' names and everything.\n\nThen there's the incomplete sentence questions.  "What if I?"  What if you what?  It drives me crazy.\n\nKeep in mind English is not the first language for lots of these folks.  Ok, that explains some of them, the rest are just inept Americans who need more English in school.
121158
Well, there's either something wrong with them, or something wrong with the test.  If there's something wrong with them, it may be their fault or not.\n\nWith math specifically, I think the fault is the school's.  Math has no cultural bias: 2+2=4 no matter where you go or who you are.  But teachers in public schools are largely union members, there on the basis of seniority, and may or may not be good at teaching.  Statistically, blacks rely more heavily on the public school system than whites.  Indeed, the biggest boom in private and parochial schools in this country came just after the most significant of the Supreme Court decisions regarding integration.  (They were largely white, of course.)  There are, however, excellent prep schools that are primarily black, and I'm sure more will be created in the future, as the black middle class recognizes the necessity and black teachers abandon the safety of the teachers union for the challenge involved.\n\nStandardized tests clearly do have a cultural bias, and that has been proved to be a bias against blacks.  Black people have a difficult time for a variety of reasons, some of their own doing and some due to external forces.  For example, many black people use a non-standard English, not because they cannot learn better, but because it is "cool."  That may be fine for their social life, but does not do well on standardized tests.  Many develop attitude problems wherein they experience real discrimination occasionally, and come to expect it all the time.  This is called "a chip on one's shoulder," and does more harm than good to the person holding the chip.  I think that metaphor was created because you cannot move naturally, and must hold yourself very stiffly, in order to keep a chip (of wood, presumably) balanced on your shoulder.\n\nIt is definitly true that in order to do well on standardized tests, a black American must learn about the white world's standards.  The tests are, almost exclusively, written by whites.  You could argue for improved test designs, but the fact is, you will be competing in a white world in most of the schools you attend, jobs you take, etc.  All very well and good to know and be proud of your own heritage, but you must decide for yourself whether isolation is worth the lost opportunities.\n\nOf course, it is quite possible to live very well keeping your distance from mass culture and the white-dominated institutions in this country, if that is your choice.  And if that is your choice, the standardized tests don't mean much to you anyway.
111938
Technically, there is not a problem with literacy in the United States.  Virtually everyone can read and write.\n\nHowever, there are these people online who, it seems, cannot form a complete sentence.  I think mostly they are just kids and they are trying to seem 'cool'.  At least, I really hope so.\n\nJust because the United States is a literate country, though, does not mean that all literate people have good grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.  Unfortunately, good grammar skills seem to be growing more and more rare -- at least, it seems that way on sites like this.
194253
True American can't speak English ...\nThey speak American but not English.\nEven they can't spell correctly. (ex. not color nor center ...etc. )
1074663
It's because Americans don't feel the need to study another language-they think everyone speaks English anyway.\nDespite the fact USA is a quilt of different cultures, they all assimilate in  no time, and the prodigy of an immigrant rarely speak their parents' language. It's a closed and complacent society, with little or no respect for any culture outside USA.\n"We are the  best, we are the the first, no one else matters" is the common attitude. At school foreign languages are not taught well and students barely study one language, which they rarely master...And even if you learn another language, if you don't practice it, you forget it.\nI think that is a great disadvantage for Americans, because they are understood wherever they go, but they don't understand anybody ...
186475
For the most part it is due to the fact that the American education system fails miserably in its attempt to teach children basic reading and comprehension skills. The system insists on teaching children math skills when they haven't even learned to read.  If the system was restructured to concentrate on reading and comprehension in the first few years, later in schooling the child could easily learn skills for the profession he or she is interested in. I am so thankful that my second and third grade teacher forced me into learning how to read. She kept me after school many a night and drilled reading skills into my cranium gray matter. Her name was Mrs. Wesson of Lincoln school in a town called Freeport Illinois. God rest her wonderful soul!
1174839
It seems so. I have never seen so many children who can 't spell basic vocabulary words and form a complete sentence without error. It boggles my mind why they would intentionally spell words wrong too in order to seem like they are talking cool. No Child Left Behind, uh huh..........
364055
I am a preschool teacher in Ohio. We focus most of our energies into teaching children beginning literacy concepts at an early age. If children don't know how to read when they begin school, how will they be able to learn any other subjects. This is why children who are behind in reading and writing will often fall behind in other areas even if they are gifted in another area. It is the basis of eveything we do in our lives. Can you imagine what it would be like not knowing how to read? And you must begin to plant the seed at an early age. Even reading to your child is a very big step. They will begin to learn the concepts of print which is one early assessment you can do with young children.
376237
Its got to be lowwwww, trust me!!! They now have this system where as long as they pass english and math, they pass the grade.
42211
I agree that language development is due mainly to the parents, but sometimes the kid is just smart.  A combination of the two is usually the answer.
982442
What stats do you have that say that poor children don't know how to read or write.  I was VERY poor and I know how to read and write.  My son and I were poor for quite some time and he read better than any of his classmates.  When we were able to climb out of that hole and we moved to a nicer school I noticed a lot of the students couldn't read.  These were children from 'good' homes.  Their parents were too busy working to spend any time with them on homework.  I know this because I worked in that classroom for 3 days a week and I saw what was happening.  I think it's a generalization to say that poor kids can't read or write.\n\nAmerica does need to work on the public school system though.  We are far behind in many areas compared to other countries.  Until the Goverment puts schools first there will be no improvement.
688741
A lot of them are not citizens but are here on student or work visas. We get some of them trying to teach at our college and they barely speak English and will sometimes start writing in their language instead of ours. I've had to help my classmates in classes because they couldn't understand the teacher and would fail the course because of it, which affected my grade because I wasn't able to focus on my own work.