A few years ago, when staff at Eureka College were in the midst of identifying areas where their students needed some extra help, there was sort of a light bulb moment.
Some students who'd been identified as having trouble with college-level writing weren't only struggling with that discipline. They were also struggling to read at the same level.
"They couldn't comprehend the information they were being given to read in order to respond to what they were reading — or in order to synthesize the information from different sources they were reading and write critically," Eureka College provost and vice president of academic affairs Ann Fulop said in an interview for WGLT's Sound Ideas.
"So when we uncovered that the issue with the writing was the reading comprehension, we said, 'We need to address this problem. Now.'"
That's led the private, 170-year-old liberal arts college in Woodford County to create a brand new position: A reading specialist who will work closely with students to bring them up to speed on college-level reading skills. A job listing for the new position was first posted late last year.
"Problems shift and change and [you] maneuver, right? This is a new problem, so we need to find new ways to address it," Fulop said.
The reading specialist position is part of a five-year Title III grant from the federal government, though it may continue past the grant's slated duration. Among the job duties are developing a pre-college reading program held in the summer and both creating and teaching supplemental reading courses during the school year.
It's not entirely dissimilar to programs at other higher education institutions — Illinois State University offers both academic coaching and dedicated courses for first-year students in developing higher academic skill sets, like college-level reading — it's just new for Eureka.
The plan is for the reading specialist to work with 20-25 students in the first year; whether that meets the student body's need or not will be evaluated after.
'There's been a shift'
The specifics of what's caused the rise in students who struggle to read at the expected level are likely multiple, Fulop said, and vary per student. Some may come from high school where they were never expected to read a novel cover-to-cover; others may be still be coming from the cohort of students whose education was moved entirely online during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Illiteracy rates are rising in America — and have been. We get students from all over the country, so this isn't an Illinois-centric issue. This is students coming to us from many states that just, for whatever reason — how or what they were reading in high school — aren't reading at the level that we need them to read at to effectively write," Fulop said. "So this position is meant to give them that extra comprehension, that extra vocabulary, reading strategies to move them from the level they're at."
The ability of college students to read lengthy, substantive texts was the subject de jour for national publications last fall, when multiple outlets published articles noting a trend. Eureka College has not been immune, Fulop said, as faculty have had to adapt their teaching in unexpected ways. But she also said she didn't support broad sentiments that suggest "an entire generation doesn't read."
"I know that professors are still assigning books and having students read entire books in their classes. Does every student pass those classes? I think that's very student-dependent," she said. "I think students have to be asked to read. They have to be required to read. And I think some of them just need additional help doing that reading."
Still, she added, it's becoming more common for students to arrive to college from high schools that haven't required, or maybe even asked, them to read a full book — and that can't be missed in the college classroom.
"My faculty is telling me there's been a shift. I have noticed that faculty are struggling to get students to read longer texts now than they have in the past. Again, is that because students don't want to or is that because it's more difficult for them to do it and it takes them more time than it took a previous generation? That's partly what we're trying to figure out," Fulop said.
One thing she does know: The work of the reading specialist will be critical.
"Where else are [students] going to learn to do it? Aren't we in the business to educate? If this is their last hope, let's get it done," she said.
