Special Reading Initiatives
Since the National Action Plan for reading in 2005 and the establishment of the National Center for Reading in 2006, national initiatives for teaching reading have been ongoing.
National Initiatives for Reading Instruction
Reading of expository texts in all subjects has come into focus during recent years.92 Development projects like VIS (an acronym for Knowledge, Instruction, and Strategies in Danish) focus on the reading and learning processes across subjects of students in Grade 7.93 The goal of these initiatives is to improve cooperation between Danish language teachers and teachers of other subjects so they can integrate comprehension strategies and reading activities in their teaching.
Initiatives for High Achieving Students, Lower Achieving Students, and Closing Achievement Gaps
In 2010, the Ministry of Education initiated a taskforce to promote talent development in the Folkeskole to encourage students to reach their full academic potential rather than simply meeting learning objectives.94 One of its recommendations on how to promote the learning potential for high achieving students was to have teachers use differentiated teaching to focus more on students with an increased learning potential. Some of these recommendations, such as raising admission requirements for teacher education programs, have been implemented. In 2016, a pilot project focused on teaching talented students (talentvejleder) was established in five municipalities.95 The ambition of the taskforce was that each school should have one talent instructor.96
One example of a special reading initiative for lower achieving students is cross-age tutoring (læsemakker), a structured instruction project in which groups of two students read as a team to support each otherʼs learning. Typically, intermediate stage students in Grades 4 to 6 guide younger students in Grades 1 or 2.97,98 Cross-age tutoring activities can take place as part of daily scheduled reading time (læsebånd) or during studentsʼ leisure time at after-school centers. While intensive reading courses for dyslexic students have been established at the municipal level, the implementation of reading initiatives still differs among municipalities.99
During recent years, several national initiatives have been introduced to help reduce the achievement gap between native and non-native students. A taskforce formed in 2008 to consult with schools on this effort has become an integrated part of the learning consultants corps.100 Since 2014, these consultants have worked with municipalities, daycare centers, schools, after-school programs, and other organizations on improving non-native studentsʼ academic achievement.101 They have published a frequently updated guide (styrk sproget) on how to strengthen the language competencies.102 In 2011, a national plan of action was put forward to raise the academic level of non-native students after results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for 2009 showed that 2 out of 5 non-native students lacked functional literacy at the age of 15.103,104 An optional national test in Danish as Second Language was introduced as part of this plan. From the 2012–2013 school year until 2014–2015, the Danish Ministry of Education allocated grants to 14 schools with a high percentage of non-native students in order to raise the academic achievement for these students. Since then, schools have been testing whether increased focus on teaching Danish as a Second Language enhances student performance.105
During the 2013–2014 school year, the Ministry of Education carried out an initiative to strengthen efforts in helping adolescent students who have reading and spelling difficulties. Funds were allocated to develop initiatives to improve students’ reading and writing skills of expository texts, (preferably with the support of Information Technology resources) to encourage young people to enroll in vocational training.106 This initiative also calls for cooperation between literacy counselors and subject teachers to support reading and writing instruction in all subjects.