They’re Not Reading

Kids aren’t reading as much as they did. Popular opinion blames social media. But maybe there are other reasons.

Recently, The 74 published an article titled “Why Are So Few Kids Reading For Pleasure?”:

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“Over the course of two generations, from 1984 to 2023, the proportion of 13-year-olds who said they ‘never or hardly ever’ read for fun on their own time has nearly quadrupled from just 8% to 31%.”

“During that time, the percentage of middle-schoolers who read for fun ‘almost every day’ has fallen by double digits, according to survey conducted for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the test widely known as ‘the nation’s report card’: In 1984, 35% of middle school kids read for fun almost every day. By 2023, it was just 14%.”

“The phenomenon is part of a larger shift away from reading, research suggests. A new study from the University of Florida and University College London found that daily reading for pleasure has dropped more than 40% among all age groups over the last two decades, ‘a sustained, steady decline’ of about 3% per year.”

“Findings like these have sparked fears that, after more than a century of steadily expanding literacy, reading is devolving into an act relegated to a small group of elites, a ‘reading class’ that enjoys books while the rest of us see them as, in the words of scholar Wendy Griswold, ‘an increasingly arcane hobby.’”

“It’s a strange and thorny problem that in some sense seems contradictory: If you followed around a young person for a day, you’d likely see that she is reading constantly, but often in tiny fragments. In addition to school assignments, she’s taking in a ton of atomized content: alerts, text messages, memes and social media posts. All those bits add up for sure – one study found that the typical American reads the equivalent of a slim novel every day – but it isn’t the same as sitting down to read a book.”

But maybe today’s reader isn’t supposed to exhibit the same reading skills we exhibited 50 years ago. Maybe new reading is what The 74 describes as someone who is reading constantly, but often in tiny fragments. “In addition to school assignments, [the reader takes] in a ton of atomized content: alerts, text messages, memes and social posts.”

Maybe that describes the new reader.

Defining what reading might look like moving forward doesn’t help us answer a very important question: Are kids making progress in reading?

Again, The 74 offers some insight in an article titled “Are Kids Making Progress in Reading? It All Depends on How You Measure It”:

“Earlier this summer, the curriculum and assessment company Amplify reported that 70% of kindergartners and first graders were on track to learn to read. According to data collected form a test called DIBELS, scores were up significantly over their post-pandemic lows, and young student had made big gains in early reading skills.”

“That’s great news, right?”

“Not so fast. According to a variety of other exams, including formative assessments from Curriculum Associates and NWEA and the national NAEP exams, student reading scores have continued to decline.”

“So are kids making progress in reading, or not?”

“The answer may depend on what aspect of reading you look at. That is, not all reading tests measure the same thing. Amplify’s DIBELS is primarily composed of short, one-minutes assessment evaluating whether kids know their letter sounds and can understand how those sounds combine into words. Children who master these basic skills are more likely to be better readers than those who don’t.”

“But reading for comprehension depends on more than just decoding letters into sounds. Your brain might be able to decode words like ‘ribonucleic’ or ‘semiquincentennial’ but may have long forgotten the knowledge of biology and history necessary to understand their meaning.”

“Under what’s known as the simple view of reading, comprehension depends on two factors: decoding (sounding out words) and language comprehension (understanding the meaning of words and sentences). Critically, if kids can’t decode a word, they won’t be able to understand it. This is fundamental. However, even if students can decode a word, if they don’t recognize it, they won’t know what it means.”

“In other words, both skills matter. And yet, many state have a disconnect between the policies they’re pursuing to improve reading outcomes and the tests they’re relying on to tell them if those policies are working.”

For the past 50 years, America has demonstrated its ability to teach our kids how to learn to read. There are few nations, still today, that can match our success. But, around middle school, the bottom falls out. Our adolescent learners are really, really bad at “reading to learn.”

Fixing the “reading to learn” challenge can’t amount to learning leaders wringing their hands about how our youngsters have changed their reading patterns. Maybe today’s kids are just going to “read to learn” in different ways than we did – and that includes reading on devices, cellphones, and social media.

Maybe we are assessing reading in the wrong way. Maybe we should begin to learn how our kids are reading today and then build assessments around those activities and skills.

Til tomorrow. SVB