Students Facing 'Reading Recession' in US

Researchers warn that the US is experiencing a reading recession—a slide predating the pandemic's disruptions in schooling. Scholars at Harvard, Stanford, and Dartmouth analyzed state test scores from third to eighth grade for over 5,000 school districts in 38 states, allowing comparisons across school districts and states in a national Education Scorecard, per the AP. What they found was sobering: Only five states plus the District of Columbia had meaningful growth in reading test scores from 2022 to 2025. Nationally, students remain nearly half a grade level behind pre-pandemic reading scores and only slightly better in math.

While schools have focused on catching kids up since the COVID-19 pandemic upended education, reading test scores have been falling since 2013 for eighth-graders and 2015 for fourth-graders, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. "The pandemic was the mudslide that had followed seven years of steady erosion in achievement," says Thomas Kane, a Harvard professor who helped create the Education Scorecard.

Researchers are still debating the reading recession's causes. One possible factor, researchers say, is the rise of social media on smartphones and corresponding declines in kids' recreational reading. States have also backed off on strict consequences for schools whose students fail to make progress on standardized tests, Kane says. But the states that improved reading scores—notably Louisiana, Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana—all had one thing in common: They ordered schools to teach with a phonics-based approach known as the "science of reading."

For years, schools taught reading using approaches that de-emphasized phonics and encouraged strategies such as guessing words based on context clues. As reading scores tumbled over the past decade, advocates pushed for teaching methods that align with decades of research about how kids learn to read—largely by sounding out words. Along with reforming teaching methods, states have also required schools to screen for learning disabilities such as dyslexia and hire coaches to help teachers improve their reading instruction. That said, "science of reading" reforms did not guarantee success. Some states, including Florida, Arizona. and Nebraska, changed parts of their reading instruction but still saw test scores fall. Read the full story.