Bingo! All over the country, school districts are spending a fortune of our tax money trying to teach high school subjects to students who did not learn in elementary school to read, write, and do arithmetic. There are all sorts of specialists, technology, curriculum creativity, and excuses ... but the problems originated and need to be fixed at the 1st-3rd grade level.
The only real solution would be to have students without basic skills go into classes where they are taught, no matter what age they are. Significantly, we have such classes outside the schools-blob: they're called "adult literacy and numeracy" programs. They're taught by volunteers usually working for private organizations, and the students are there because they have decided they need the skills they don't have.
The funny thing is, minority parents are quick to scream bloody murder at the mere thought that THEIR children are being disserved or singled out for less that the best treatment... yet, year after year and generation after patently illiterate generation they sat by letting the schools summarily ‘pass’ their chidren from one grade to the next, WITHOUT the least concern if they could read...!
You mean to tell me a parent can’t tell if their child is learning? A parent can’t determine if their child is reading at his/her age level?
PLEEEAASE!!! Instead they scream bloody murder if their lazy and surly child would be held back longer so he/she COULD read at the proper level.