Harvard, Stanford, And Dartmouth Warn U.S. Reading Recession As Test Scores Decline

Researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth analyzed state test scores from third to eighth grade for over 5,000 school districts in 38 states and warned the U.S. is in a “reading recession.”

“Kids are in a ‘reading recession,’ as test scores continue to decline Kids are in a ‘reading recession,’ as test scores continue to decline MODESTO, Calif”

Associated Press

The Education Scorecard findings said that between 2022 and 2025 only five states plus the District of Columbia had meaningful growth in reading test scores, while nationally students remain nearly half a grade level behind pre-pandemic reading scores.

Associated Press

In Modesto, California, teacher Nancy Barajas dims the lights, turns on a disco ball and blasts music from her playlist before exams, and the district’s reading and math scores have increased consistently over the past several years.

The Associated Press said reading test scores have been falling since 2013 for eighth graders and 2015 for fourth graders, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, even as math has shown improvement in almost every state in the analysis.

The Education Scorecard analysis tied many of the reading gains to shifts toward phonics-based instruction, with the Associated Press saying the states that improved reading scores — notably Louisiana, Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana — all had one thing in common.

Thomas Kane, a Harvard professor who helped create the Education Scorecard, said, “The pandemic was the mudslide that had followed seven years of steady erosion in achievement.”

EdSource

The Associated Press also reported that researchers are debating causes, including a possible factor that “the rise of social media on smartphones” has coincided with declines in kids’ recreational reading.

In Modesto, the district revamped reading instruction during the pandemic and paid educators $5,000 to complete an extensive “science of reading” program called LETRS, or Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, while EdSource described Modesto City Schools and Compton Unified as districts whose scores are rising faster than demographically similar districts.

A focus on reading has also improved scores in Detroit, but the Associated Press said the district has paired that effort with steps to get students in school more consistently.

The Associated Press reported that a 2016 lawsuit ended in a settlement of over $94 million after students argued they’d been denied the “right to read,” and it said student test scores have grown faster than in similar urban districts in Michigan.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said, “It took a lot to rebuild systems, and now kids are learning at higher levels, but I’m still not satisfied.”

At Munger Elementary-Middle School in a largely Latino neighborhood in Detroit, the Associated Press said the money has helped employ 18 educators who give kids extra support in small groups, and it said an attendance agent makes calls to the homes of absent students, even showing up at their doors.