In 2000, administrators at Stemmers Run Middle School in Baltimore County, Md., took some significant steps to help struggling readers. They hired an academic dean to oversee instruction, carefully mixed strong and weak performers to create effective learning groups, and placed the slowest readers in special remedial programs.

The efforts dramatically improved students' reading. In 2002, only 14% failed to meet the state's basic reading level, down from 42% two years before. And 51% were rated as proficient readers, up from 20%.

In spite of that record of success, few school districts bother to work on reading skills after elementary school. Though they typically hand out summer reading lists, districts are failing to ensure that their students can handle the assignments.

As a consequence, too many students go through middle school without the reading proficiency they need to succeed in high school — and later in life.

Evidence of the problem was highlighted last month with the release of 2002 federal reading scores by the U.S. Department of Education. Fourth-grade students showed improvements, a testament to ongoing education reforms that focus on early grades. But 12th-grade scores slipped: Those rated as proficient readers dropped to 36% from 40% in 1998. The problem was particularly acute for senior boys — only 28% received a proficient rating.

The test scores show the dangers of neglecting reading instruction in upper grades. While remedial reading is prevalent in elementary schools, it is virtually non-existent in middle and high schools. Most high school English teachers aren't even trained to deal with students who are poor readers.

Part of the problem, school reformers admit, is that they often focus on the early grades, where reading improvement efforts have a more immediate and lasting impact on student performance.

Yet as the program at Stemmers Run shows, the payback from targeting middle schools can be just as great. That experimental effort grew out of a reform initiative sponsored by the Atlanta-based Southern Regional Education Board, a group of southern states that have banded together to develop innovative teaching programs.

The Maryland project and the national test scores demonstrate that weak readers of all ages can improve with intervention — if only they're given the chance.