Can’t Read, Won’t Read

The latest NAEP reading scores suggest all the above.

By Carol Jago

Many of us had hoped that the 2024 NAEP reading assessment results would offer evidence that students had recovered from the pandemic slump and were back on track. The opposite, alas, is the case. Eighth grade students in every state scored worse in reading comprehension than they had in 2022, worse than they have in 30 years. Most alarmingly, the steepest score declines were from our lowest performing students. The gap between academic haves and have-nots has become a chasm.

You can view many charts and graphs of state-by-state and subgroup results. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

The 8th graders who were tested in 2024 are currently in our 9th grade classrooms, most likely struggling not only with reading in English but across the curriculum, including in math. Blaming the screen age is too easy. For one, we are as guilty as our students of succumbing to the temptation to substitute scrolling for deep reading. For another, these screens – and glasses and who knows what else – will become only more ubiquitous in the days to come.

To suggest the need for a corrective is an understatement. We need a revolutionary return to rigor. Fortunately, California State University’s ERWC modules are models of rigorous, engaging curriculum and the ERWC community is a safe place to share one’s travails. But we also need to enlist students in this work. ERWC isn’t something we do to teenagers but rather a vehicle for strengthening their reading and writing muscles while engaging in challenging intellectual work. The goal isn’t a completed packet; it’s making rhetorical thinking a habit of mind.

To accomplish this, we need students to come to class. Every day. NAEP survey results revealed that 26% of students are chronically absent, that is, they are missing 4-5 days of school per month. When students miss this much school, they are always a bit off-balance. They can feel they are missing key pieces of the lesson. It’s a Swiss cheese experience of school.

The other survey data that depresses me is the news that students who score in the lowest percentiles report that they “never or hardly ever” read for fun. Of course, it makes sense that students who read poorly wouldn’t enjoy reading. I’m a very poor swimmer and would never choose to plunge into a pool for pleasure. That said, volume matters when it comes to reading proficiency. We get good at what we do. The solution cannot be to make the books we offer students easier or funnier but rather to teach them what to do when the going gets tough. We also need to create a classroom atmosphere where independent reading is the norm and talking about that reading happens all the time.

Reading for pleasure increases a reader’s background knowledge, not because the reader is taking notes but rather through osmosis. Students who read more, know more and, as a result of knowing more, find reading easier, more pleasurable. It’s a virtuous cycle. For a deeper dive into this aspect of reading comprehension, I recommend Kelly Gallagher’s latest book from Heinemann, To Read Stuff, You Need to Know Stuff: Helping Students Build and Use Prior Knowledge (Heinemann 2024).

On April 24 I will be offering an ERWC webinar titled “With Rigor for All: What NAEP Reading Scores Do and Don’t Tell Us.” Please join me for a closer look at the Nation’s Report Card. I will also be both demonstrating instructional moves that can help us move the needle and talking about new books for teenage readers.

Let’s help one another rise to this challenge. The alternative is too awful to contemplate.

Carol Jago is a member of the ERWC Steering Committee and a long-time high school English teacher. She edits California English, the quarterly journal of the California Association of Teachers of English.

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Editor’s Note: The 2025 ERWC Literacy Conference will be June 23rd in Long Beach, California. Our theme this year is “Leaning into Liminality: A Return to Language, Wonder, and Inspiration.” Registration is free! Please visit the ERWC Online Community for more information, including the Call for Presenters.