If you work in a school, you’ve had the conversation many times: The one where a group of dedicated and well-educated professionals sit in a room and look over the data, wondering why the test scores didn’t go up. Everything that could possibly have been done to raise test scores was done. “We tried everything!”

• We explained to students the importance of the test, over and over again.
• We shared individual scores with students and held goal-setting conferences throughout the year.
• We talked about the test at every staff meeting. 
• We taught students how to navigate online questions.
• We modeled how to use all the special features of the online test format.
• We asked our test questions throughout the year in the test format.
• We provided practice tests.
• We taught the students the academic language likely used in the test questions.
• We modeled how to best answer multiple choice questions.
• We had a pep fest, complete with a flash mob and inspirational video.
• We provided a protein-packed breakfast to ensure students didn’t have rumbly tummies during test time.
• We provided peppermint during the test to increase their brain activity.

Still, our scores are flat. Level. Stagnant. How can this be?

Do we need a new reading program? More interventions? Different interventions? Another incentive program? More professional development? Are we providing the wrong professional development?

The focus on the test is missing the point. The best way to make our students better readers isn’t to teach them about how to answer multiple choice questions. The best way to make our students better readers is to make them readers.

What if we ask the question, How often do our students read? Do we have them reading throughout the school day? Are they exposed to different types of texts? Are students expected to use what they have read to consider new perspectives, to solve problems, and to step outside themselves, or are they reading to complete a set of carefully worded multiple choice questions?

Are there unopened textbooks in our classrooms with stiff bindings because we found it is easier to just tell the students what they would be reading instead of allowing them to read? Under the guise of getting through all the content, did we forget to let students read to discover for themselves? 

If students roll their eyes and complain when they are asked to open a book, perhaps it isn’t entirely their fault. Do we give our students authentic reasons to read?  Do we model excitement for the insights we gain from reading?

Our best schools make literacy everyone’s responsibility. Everyone reads. In every content area, teachers talk about the specialized text structures and other intricacies of their discipline. Students both read and write in every classroom. Having a “next read” is as important as having a current one. Students aren’t skimming to find the answers to fill-in-the-blank questions, they are reading deeply to compare, to synthesize, to form an argument, to create something new.

The next time you are asked to take part in the conversation about stagnant scores, steer the conversation away from test prep and toward the outcome that is most important—making all students readers. Remind your colleagues that this is more important than any test score.

Julie Scullen is a former member of the ILA Board of Directors, and has also served as president of the Minnesota Reading Association and Minnesota Secondary Reading Interest Council. She taught most of her career in secondary reading intervention classrooms and now serves as Teaching and Learning Specialist for Secondary Reading in Anoka-Hennepin schools in Minnesota, working with teachers of all content areas to foster literacy achievement. She teaches graduate courses at Hamline University in St. Paul in literacy leadership and coaching, disciplinary literacy, critical literacy, and reading assessment and evaluation.