Over the last few decades student reading performance has been a growing concern, declining since the 1970’s. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows that reading scores have been consistently declining since 2012. In 2023 the nine-year-olds group had their largest decline in reading since 1990.
In 2024, the literacy rate in the US was 79%, meaning 79% of adults had literacy skills that allow them to compare and contrast information, paraphrase, and make low-level inferences. The remaining 21% of adults had low literacy skills, boiling down to about 43 million adults in the United States not able to read at a functional level.
Diving into that 79% literacy a little deeper we see that the average American reads at a 7th to 8th grade level, and 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th grade level. 44% of American adults do not read even a single book in a year. 33% of high school graduates never read a book after high school.
According to most experts, the average age when a child in the US can read well is around 6 or 7 years old. Statistically students that can’t read proficiently by the end of fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare. 85% of juveniles in the court system are illiterate. 70% of inmates in US prisons can’t read above a 4th grade level. According to the Department of Justice, the link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is connected to reading failure.
The Child Mind Institute states that reading to a child at a young age, even before they can communicate verbally, helps to lay a foundation for the neurological groundwork for effective language and literacy. Many studies have shown that when a family, especially the mother, reads to and teaches young children they perform better academically, including literacy. 78% of peer-reviewed studies on academic achievements show that homeschooled students perform significantly better than those in institutional schools. This is believed to be because of the effects of being in a family setting and having more one-on-one attention and learning.
Reading is considered to improve societies because it helps the reader to develop empathy, increases their knowledge and understanding of diverse perspectives, promotes critical thinking, and encourages tolerance towards different viewpoints. Reading leads to a more informed and engaged population.
Reading is important for our health as well. Multiple studies have shown that reading reduces stress and promotes wellness and can even help improve sleep. It can also help combat Alzheimer’s and Dementia and decrease the feeling of loneliness or social isolation.
It is crucial that we foster a love of reading in the people of this country. It is critical that reading becomes a focus of our education system. This year instead of the typical New Year’s resolutions, perhaps you could focus on and encourage those you know to read more. You could join a book club, make a reading/book goal chart, share books with loved ones, learn a new word each day, or devote a certain amount of time each day to reading.
For the health and wellbeing of our nation, it is paramount that we raise the literacy rate and encourage reading in the younger generations.
Comments