The Right to Read?
By: Maria Hibbard
Despite the controversy throughout the 2000s about the No Child Left Behind Act, it’s given educators and policy makers a way to measure the progress of children in crucial years throughout crucial years of their education. Systemic educational reform, however, has yet to have an impact in some areas, at least, and it’s being challenged in Michigan. This week the Michigan ACLU filed a suit against Michigan government departments and one Detroit school district, asserting students’ “right to read” at grade level and receive appropriate assistance if needed. CNN reports:
Filed as a class action on behalf of eight students who, the ACLU said, represent nearly 1,000 students in the district, the lawsuit cites individual cases of students struggling with basic literacy.
One of the student plaintiffs reportedly failed the state’s standardized tests in his fourth, fifth and sixth grade years without receiving “any specialized reading intervention in 4th or 5th grade,” the lawsuit says.
Another student plaintiff has, according to the suit, attended Highland Park schools since first grade and after completing eighth grade earlier this year “his reading proficiency level is appropriate for the 2nd or 3rd grade.”
Highland Park is one of the worst performing school districts in Michigan, according to the state Department of Education, and its high school currently ranks in the bottom 1% statewide.
“No case ever filed anywhere in the U.S. has addressed a school system in such dire straits.” said attorney Mark Rosenbaum, a member of the Michigan ACLU legal team.
Highland Park can hardly be the only district where resources do not exists to provide struggling students the help they need. Even if your interests do not even remotely touch education law and policy, the possible implications of this case – and the very fact that it was filed – touches something that connects all attorneys and law students. In some way or another, the first step to becoming an attorney was becoming literate; the very basis of the legal profession is founded on the sound ability to read. If students in struggling districts continue to take standardized tests and fail them, they will also have trouble finding the basics of adult life later on. Essentially, ACLU’s “right to read” suggests where the very basis of the justice gap begins. As Michigan ACLU Executive Director said, “Literacy is the gateway to all other knowledge.”
If you’re interested in learning more about careers in education law, you can read Harvard’s guide to education law here.