Elementary School Reading Levels: Helpful, or Hurtful?

I am fifteen years old and I am just starting to remember some parts of fifth grade. No, I don’t have a terrible memory. No, I never hit my head on the playground. At ten years old, I was tired of school. I knew this, but it wasn’t until last year, when my mom started telling me how I hated school for a lot of that year, that I started to remember exactly how bad it had been.

I have always loved school and learning. (Yes, I was that annoying kid who got excited at the end of summer vacation.) So explain to me why I stopped wanting to go to school in fifth grade. It all comes down to one thing: reading levels.

In elementary school, there are twenty-six reading levels labelled A-Z. Each year, there was a maximum level a student could reach, and if they reached that level in the fall, they just wouldn’t be tested again come spring. Once a student reached the highest level, it was like checking a box. They could read, so everything was great and they would be left alone (read: ignored) for the rest of the year.

I reached the maximum reading level every single year. In first grade, my grade was knocked down on fluency because I spoke too fast when I read aloud, even though I was understanding everything. No one cared if I understood what I was reading, because I was just reading “too fast.” From second grade onward, I read every single book in my classroom before the end of the year (sometimes by the end of fall), and would fall into patterns of rereading the same easy books over and over again — because what are you supposed to do when you’re not allowed to be challenged? I never stopped reading, but I also never understood how I could love reading but hate the subject in school.

By the time fifth grade rolled around, I was used to being ignored. No one cares about the smart kids until they get so burnt out that they’re no longer “smart.” And I was sick of the whole thing. As the feeling of uselessness increased, I started to feel as if I didn’t matter in any subject. I would count the seconds until math class was over, playing games in my head to distract myself. I would participate in discussions and lead the way in reading and writing group work, only to have nothing reciprocated. And then reading tests rolled around…

I was dreading being tested, because I figured it would be yet another year of being tested once and then ignored. I couldn’t have been more wrong. When I got to the classroom, I was surprised to meet the new reading specialist. She introduced herself, and before even mentioning the reading test, took time to just talk to me. She showed me that she truly cared, asking about my favorite books, what I liked to do, and how I wanted to be a writer. When she finally began to prepare the reading test, she gave me the option of which level I wanted to test for, but made sure I chose ‘Z’. That reading test was unlike any I had ever taken before. Instead of being bored or feeling limited by rules of what I could or couldn’t read, I felt validated. For once, my opinions on reading (and me) mattered.

That same teacher made a point of always checking in on me. She helped all of us with research and book recommendations, and was never too busy to ask us how we were doing. I re-learned to love elementary school, but it was due to that one teacher that I truly felt seen during the rough time that was my fifth grade experience.

Looking back, it’s almost sad how much it meant to me to have someone ask me what I was reading. It did not take much for me to be excited about school, and if I had been challenged instead of limited, I could have had a much better fifth grade experience. The struggles of one student at any given reading level should not be a reason to prevent the success of another, and the withholding of reading levels was just that for me.

This same concept can be applied to high school, where we are incredibly lucky to have access to CP, honors, accelerated, and AP classes, allowing each student to make a choice that reflects their abilities. These levels are imperative to the success of individuals at Needham High, because it gives everyone a chance to succeed in the environment that best suits them.

Says ninth grader Amelie Zosa, “I reached the highest level [of reading levels] really early so I just never read books from the school.” It is highly ironic that when kids are succeeding, they have to limit their success in school, the place they are supposed to attend in order to learn, and search for educational opportunities in outside environments. Now, Amelie takes all accelerated classes and truly sees a difference in the environment, showing that there is such value in being challenged and surrounded by people who also crave challenge.

Another ninth grader, Anika Ray, agrees. She struggled sometimes in elementary school, where she never felt accepted for being smart. She says, “Some kids would make fun of me for liking reading so I didn’t embrace myself for a while. And not accepting yourself is not a good thing because you get to sixth grade and you’re so focused on fitting in that you try to be like everyone else instead of trying to find friends who love you for you. Some benefits of accelerated classes are that I actually feel challenged in class and I feel like I’m learning at my true potential.”

Ananya Sharma also noticed the questionable standards in elementary school: “I feel like in elementary school, not just for reading, but for everything, if you were smarter or worked faster then you were just really bored most of the time. Especially in first or second grade, teachers didn’t want you reading ‘above’ your level and that was definitely restricting.” School should be exciting, a fun place where we get to learn, not a place where we feel like outsiders and sit in our classrooms bored.

School is an imperative part of growing up. We spend some of the most formative years of our lives in classrooms, and as such, shouldn’t school be a place where everyone gets to learn? As the daughter of a teacher, I know that it is extremely difficult (especially in elementary school) for one teacher to make sure every student gets what they need, but schools hire reading specialists to help the kids who are struggling for a reason. What if those same reading specialists also utilized some of their time to help the kids who needed a challenge, just like I was helped in fifth grade? It is up to teachers to make sure that everyone learns to their fullest potential.