Language/Reading Curriculum in the Fourth Grade

Reading Policy

There is no federally mandated national reading or literacy policy in the United States. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) includes programs aimed at helping states, districts, and schools meet the special educational needs of students working to learn the English language, students with disabilities, Native American students, homeless students, students whose parents are migrant workers, and neglected or delinquent students. For schools with economically disadvantaged students, Title I is the primary federal program within ESEA that funds state and district literacy programs aimed at improving student reading achievement and narrowing achievement gaps.⁴³

Summary of National Curriculum

There is no national curriculum for reading in the United States. The No Child Left Behind Act required states to adopt challenging academic content and achievement standards for English/language arts (or reading) at all grade levels. The law imposed no requirements on the content or rigor of states’ standards; as a result, reading standards differed in both content and specificity. The Every Student Succeeds Act specifies that standards must align with entrance requirements for credit bearing coursework at each state’s institutions of higher education and, when necessary, career and technical education standards. However, states maintain the authority to set the content and rigor of their standards.

In a state-led effort sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in 2009, many states worked to establish a common set of mathematics and English/language arts and literacy standards for kindergarten through Grade 12. These Common Core State Standards were developed in collaboration with state and local administrators, school administrators, teachers, and research experts to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare children for college and the workforce. To this end, these standards provide grade-specific K–12 anchor standards in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language that translate the broad aims of being ready for college or a career into age and attainment appropriate expectations for English/language arts and literacy. Although not every state implements the Common Core State Standards, the four anchor standards for reading help illustrate the expectations defining age appropriate reading proficiency in the United States. The four anchor standards for reading are:⁴⁴

Key Ideas and Details—Students must make logical inferences from text; cite specific textual evidence; determine central themes; and analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas interact over the course of a text
Craft and Structure—Students must interpret words and phrases as they are used in texts, analyze the structure of texts, and assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of the text
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas—Students must integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, evaluate arguments and specific claims in a text, and analyze two or more texts to compare themes
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity—Students must read and understand both literary and informational texts independently

Since their publication and subsequent adoption beginning in 2010, the Common Core State Standards and the testing consortia aligned with the standards have elicited scrutiny by policymakers and advocacy groups representing a broad range of interests. As a result, a few states that originally adopted the Common Core State Standards transitioned to state developed standards that closely resemble but do not align perfectly with the Common Core State Standards. As of 2016, 38 states and the District of Columbia had adopted Common Core State Standards in whole or in part.⁴⁵