Opinion: NAACP Resolutions on Literacy as a Civil Right Are a Wake-Up Call for Schools
This summer, over 1,000 NAACP delegates from across the country convened in Las Vegas to address issues impacting civil rights. While President Joe Biden's keynote address received the lion's share of media attention, the passage of two resolutions establishing literacy as a civil right could have the greatest long-term implications for the nation's children. With this historic act, the NAACP brings moral clarity to a burgeoning movement to improve the way reading is taught in U.S. schools.
Reading outcomes for American children are a source of national shame and a root cause of many of the country's deep-seated issues and injustices. In the most recent assessment of U.S. fourth graders, only one-third were proficient in reading. These results reflect a longstanding problem with grave social consequences, a reality the Department of Justice recognized when it declared illiteracy a causal factor in delinquent behavior and incarceration more than 30 years ago.
The NAACP has been increasingly vocal about poor literacy outcomes. It passed a resolution on dyslexia in 2014 and recently led a national literacy campaign , but its new resolutions are particularly pointed. While they are not heavily prescriptive, their message is clear: Literacy is a civil right, and progress is a moral imperative. Children cannot read, and the culprit is the "widespread neglect of implementing evidence-based practices" in how literacy skills are taught. The resolutions call for "accountability and monitoring" of instructional practices as well as better training to ensure "teaching methods grounded in research-proven effectiveness" are implemented in all schools. The NAACP also calls on policymakers to "be aware of research-based strategies and use them in their policies."
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As local NAACP branches must uphold national resolutions, this work can begin immediately within the states. In recent years, journalists , parents and many teachers have pushed for reform, yet change has been slow to reach classrooms, both in elementary schools and in universities. As I consider the continued barriers to progress, I believe the NAACP — and peer civil rights organizations including Children's Defense Fund, Alliance for Excellent Education and National Urban League — are uniquely poised to dismantle them.
Politics, for example, has been a notable obstacle to change. Structured literacy instruction was once considered a conservative cause, and while it has become a big-tent issue, many partisans cannot resist coloring it red or blue. This reflects the general atmosphere of American society — deeply divided by politics — but given the stakes, literacy advocates must call for a cease and desist of any form of politicization in the movement to improve reading instruction. The NAACP's stance can help depoliticize conversations about reading instruction, as it joins standard-bearers from red state governors to the American Federation of Teachers , from dyslexia advocates to houses of worship and from those living in poverty to those in the wealthiest zip codes in advancing change.
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At the university level, professors of education have long been arming teachers with methods that simply do not work for the majority of students. While the National Center for Teaching Quality has reported extensively on this issue, many universities have ignored these critiques in the name of academic freedom. The NAACP takes teaching colleges to task, calling for an "evidence-based professional education system." Leaders can — and must — ask universities why they are complicit in civil rights violations when they fail to hold their education departments accountable. These institutes of higher education should not be designated research institutions unless they align their programs and methods courses with the research consensus.
NAACP activism also pressures education funders, particularly the federal government, to take initiative for better reading outcomes. Why should any school that receives federal funding — including public schools via the Title I program — be allowed to perpetuate civil rights violations by failing to use research-validated approaches to teach reading? Certainly, the U.S. Department of Education could institute corrective measures. Public or philanthropic funding could also address key voids in research and training. Educators deserve access to major research efforts to help them understand which curricula are most effective and usable in schools. Teachers should not be paying for professional development out of their own pockets to make up for training that was not current with the research. If America can spend billions of dollars overseas to fund wars, surely our leaders can find the money needed to ensure our children can read.
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Lastly, NAACP advocacy may finally compel change in the unregulated K-12 product marketplace. Major publishers continue to put profitability first , with little accountability as to whether their materials actually help teach children to read. State departments of education create curriculum lists without considering which have evidence of working best, and how much time and preparation is required for full implementation of materials. School systems, at all levels, must demand effective, highly usable products that empower teachers, not salespeople.
Society has established that the profit motive must not override civil and human rights, a principle affirmed by decisions to end slavery, create child labor laws and codify access to a free and appropriate public education. The right to read belongs in that same pantheon of liberties. As Maya Angelou put it, "The elimination of illiteracy is as serious an issue to our history as the abolition of slavery." By demanding important changes in American education, the NAACP brings its powerful pulpit to bear in heeding Angelou's call.
