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decline in reading
The number of 8th graders who said they read 30 minutes or more than a day, besides homework, declined by 4 per centum points between 2017 and 2019. Credit: Photograph by Allison Shelley for EDUimages

Before the pandemic, eighth graders' reading comprehension declined substantially. Since then, scholars have been trying to figure out why their scores dropped so much between 2017 and 2019 on a highly regarded national test known equally the National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP.

Researchers at the American Institutes for Inquiry, a nonprofit research system, are excavation into whether kids are reading less — perhaps distracted by their digital devices. The emerging reply is that yes, immature teens seem to be reading less and enjoying reading less. But the refuse in book reading might not be the main culprit in our national comprehension problem. And split up international studies of xv-yr-olds and 4th graders indicate that 8th course reading habits aren't telling the whole story.

Commencement, the numbers. In survey questions that back-trail the NAEP test, eighth graders reported how much time they spent reading outside of school. The percent of public school students who said they read 30 minutes or more than a day, likewise homework, declined past 4 per centum points from 53 percent in 2017 to 49 pct in 2019. These same young teens were besides less probable to say they talked nearly books or went to the library. Positive attitudes near reading roughshod too. 8th grade students were less likely to concur that reading was ane of their favorite activities or that they enjoyed going to a bookstore.

At get-go, the declines in reading habits and attitudes seemed to fit together with the decline in reading scores and tell a simple story: those who read more than scored college. Just when the researchers broke the data downwards by state, the neat correlation between reading and comprehension fell apart. At that place were some states, such as Mississippi, where students read less only scores didn't drop. And in other states, such as Rhode Island, reading habits were more stable, but scores slid however.

"Information technology's perplexing," said Elena Forzani, an assistant professor of education at Boston Academy, in reaction to this reading information, which is yet unpublished just was presented at ii teaching conferences in Apr 2021. "Nosotros know that reading motivation causes kids to option up books and read more. And the more than and more y'all read, the amend you become at information technology."

Forzani, a reading specialist who was not involved in this analysis, wonders if electric current survey questions are out of pace with our digital age and fail to capture all the new kinds of reading that young teens are doing every day. Perhaps reading posts on social media and clicking on article links in Google searches are useful types of reading too. Students might exist learning new words and information and thinking critically about texts, boosting their comprehension skills in the same style that one-time-fashioned volume reading does.

"If a child but wants to sit and watch videos all the fourth dimension, I wouldn't want my kids doing that either," Forzani said. "It's a passive activity. Only if they're creating their ain videos, that's much more active and requires circuitous and critical cognitive processes. And I think that's what matters more than."

Forzani said reading is "hugely important." Her advice to parents is to let kids to read whatever they want to, even if information technology'due south "Captain Underpants" and you would rather an older child choose a more than challenging book. "It'south ever been the case that we want to let kids read any motivates them," Forzani said, "because if they're not motivated to read, nothing else is going to work."

Forzani thinks the slide in eighth grade test scores could be the result of the way that schools teach reading to struggling students. "Nosotros tend to take those kids and throw lower level instruction at them," she said. "They get these rote phonics programs. It's all focused on learning to read. They're non having complex discussions about a text. At the aforementioned time, we're also taking away scientific discipline and history teaching where kids can develop cognition and where they can put comprehension strategies into practice. We're education kids to read in a content and motivational vacuum."

Forzani's theory for why reading comprehension is deteriorating is compelling, especially since the steepest falls were amid low-achieving students but it still needs to exist backed upwardly past research

The striking refuse in students' reading habits may exist a relatively contempo phenomenon in the United States. International data from prior years doesn't reveal that American students are less enthusiastic nigh reading.

Martin Hooper, a senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research who led the eighth grade reading study, has likewise been digging into reading habits around the globe and he'south plant an even before decrease in reading and reading attitudes in other countries. Between 2000 and 2018, fewer xv-yr-olds reported reading for enjoyment in 31 out of 39 countries and jurisdictions surveyed past the Program in International Student Cess (PISA), which as well released its own study on reading habits in the digital age on May 4, 2021. The  U.Due south. was ane of the few exceptions, bucking the disappointing trend hither.

American fourth graders also didn't show the aforementioned contempt toward reading that their international counterparts did in surveys by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). Elsewhere around the world 4th graders had more negative attitudes nigh reading in 2016 than fourth graders did in 2001 in 13 out of xx countries and jurisdictions. In this survey of elementary school children, parents had even more negative attitudes toward reading than their children. Parents reported reading less for enjoyment in 15 out of 18 countries and jurisdictions. "The apple tree doesn't fall far from the tree," said Hooper.

Nosotros're all struggling.

This story well-nigh the turn down in reading was written by Jill Barshay and produced byThe Hechinger Written report, a nonprofit, independent news organisation focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign upwards for the Hechinger newsletter.

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Jill Barshay writes the weekly "Proof Points" column about education research and data, roofing a range of topics from early childhood to higher education. She taught algebra to 9th-graders for...