In Fayette County, kids are bombarded with programs to get them to read: Accelerated Reader, the Scholastic Book Fair, weekly trips to the library, and even bribery. Fayette County Middle and Elementary Schools have, quite successfully, gotten their kids reading. In high school, however, it seems that the ball has been dropped.

Donnie Woodward, one of Bryan Station High School’s librarians, comments on reading habits at the school saying, “I have some kids who read religiously,” citing some of the students occupying the library at the time, “but not enough, not nearly enough.” She adds that the main reason is because of the lack of programs, though conceding that teachers should not have to bear the responsibility. Still though, she considers the situation to be dire.

Mrs. Woodward, as it turns out, is justified. According to the National High School Center’s statistics, in the past fifteen years, 15 million students have graduated high school with below-basic reading levels. Not only that, but it seems that teen literacy has been dropping drastically in that time period. In 1992, the percentage of high school seniors that were reading at or above the basic level was 80%, in 2005 that number dropped to 73%.

Statistics that most strongly support Mrs. Woodward’s fears are those that pinpoint literacy problems beginning in high school. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, between 1992 and 2005, the reading levels of fourth graders remained steady, rising in eighth grade and in twelfth grade, reading scores decline, and have been since 1992.

The Lexington Public Libraries have a long-standing tradition of providing young adult-specific literature. Teen readers get their own section in the libraries and a tab to themselves on the LexPubLib website. In the Beaumont Branch, a section of the library is blocked off just for teenagers to read, complete with bean bags, chairs, a carpet and signs reading “Teens Only!”

The libraries have also compiled a list entitled “50 Books to Read in High School,” a list “generated by the teen services team with input from librarians from the Fayette County Public Schools.” Books featured range from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to the pop-culture phenomenon Twilight to contemporary classics like Fahrenheit 451.

However, there is still much to be done to recover the literacy of Lexington’s teenagers, but considering the success of literacy for the kids, it seems we already have the tools to do so.