However, highlighting actually frees the classroom teacher to pursue more active, thought provoking, problem-solving strategies without worrying about the results of standardized tests. With the teacher's guidance, they learn to formulate their own questions before reading and use highlighters to find the answers. As they develop their skills, they gain the confidence and ability to do well oil standardized tests. Reading comprehension in all areas will improve because highlighting trains the mind to read with a purpose and to distinguish between essential and non-essential information. Students who have learned highlighting report that they now use the technique as a study skill to get the main points from their reading assignments in all subjects.
Evidence supporting highlighting continues to grow.
Teachers using highlighting in their classes saw remarkable gains on TAAS, especially for those students who had never passed a standardized reading test. This year at Leander Middle School, where highlighting is a regular part of TAAS preparation, passage rates are mostly in the nineties, an increase in almost every area since last year. A teacher who uses highlighting in a secondary remedial reading program reported that, of her 75 students this year, she had only one failure on the exit TAAS test. I take the greatest personal satisfaction in the tremendous growth of self-confidence in my students. The brighter students, who always pass with respectable scores, are proud of achieving academic recognition for their test-taking skills.