Static reading labels are problematic not only because youths demonstrate varying reading skills and identities across secondary classrooms but also because being labeled as “struggling” can undermine literacy learning. Little research has investigated how “struggling” and “proficient” readers’ interactions with shared classroom contexts may mediate their literacy in similar and different ways. In a school-year-long qualitative study, the first author shadowed eight struggling readers across classes in an urban high school and compared their literacy experiences with those of youths not labeled as such. Analysis of 46 interviews, using 425 hr of observations as contextualizing data, showed that interactions with school contexts contributed to students’ positioning as struggling or proficient regardless, sometimes, of skilled reading. Proficient readers reported feeling that their perspectives were valued whereas struggling readers reported theirs were not. By documenting how contexts mediated youths’ perspectives on reading, findings have implications for disrupting deficit labels and promoting socially just teaching.

Purpose This paper aims to report on a study investigating how young people and teachers interpreted reading proficiency and difficulty across different tracks of English language arts in the sole high school serving a culturally diverse city. Design/methodology/approach For six months, the researchers observed in three hierarchically tracked English classes. Participants were three teachers and 15 focal youths. The researchers also conducted semi-structured and open-ended interviews and collected classroom artifacts and students’ records. Findings Despite adoption of the Common Core State Standards and a school-designed common English curriculum, both of which were to contribute to shared literacy objectives, students and teachers built highly contextualized understandings of reading proficiency, which diverged across tracks and mediated instruction. Across tracks, however, deficit discourses about reading struggle persisted, and students and teachers attributed difficulty to students’ attitudes and behaviors. Young people never described themselves in negative terms, which suggests they resisted the deficit labels tracking systems can generate. Originality/value Findings extend research by showing how literacy-related tracking contributed to exclusionary contexts through which students were unproductively positioned at odds. Findings suggest a need for renewed rigor in the examination of tracking practices, particularly how notions of reading difficulty/proficiency position youths and mediate literacy instruction. Despite deficit conceptions of “struggling readers” across the school, youths never described themselves negatively and accepted reading difficulty as normal; how youths achieved such resourceful stances can be further investigated. These research directions will support the creation of English contexts that invite all youths into inquisitive, critical and agentive interactions with texts and each other.

Shorter lengths of stay in the hospital decrease costs and the likelihood of hospital-acquired infections. Preadmission units replace the old practice of hospital admissions the day before surgery. This article describes how the preadmission unit at Maine Medical Center meets the need for getting patients thoroughly prepared for their surgical procedures in an outpatient setting.