Months have passed since a press release from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) brought sobering news: one out of every three American high school seniors lacks basic reading proficiency. And about two-thirds don’t have the skills to succeed with college-level reading.

Yet, most parents still have no idea this problem exists, how severe it is, or how EARLY it can start for students.

The unprepared high schoolers graduating now were already showing reading skill declines back when they were in elementary school.

But how do current elementary and middle school reading scores look on the latest NAEP? When those students finally graduate, will the situation be better?

Unfortunately, probably not.

Fourth graders' scores dropped five points since 2019, erasing two decades of progress. Eighth graders continued to struggle, with the largest percentage ever recorded scoring below basic proficiency.

Schools will have a hard time fixing this. It takes time, staff, resources, and big structural changes. If you have a young child right now, you may feel nervous.

But parental involvement makes a huge difference for reading outcomes. Understanding what's really happening, staying informed, and finding expert reading help if necessary can change the trajectory.

TL;DR: Most parents don’t realize how many young American readers are struggling—including their own. But awareness and action can turn this around.

In the rest of this issue, we'll share what districts are trying, why results are lagging, and how parents can proactively support their child’s reading journey, no matter what’s happening at school.

In today’s issue:

• New curricula need time and training to work

• Proficiency requires deep comprehension

• Decades of decline in high school reading

Off the Starting Blocks

Many states and districts are working to reverse negative achievement trends by adopting curricula based on the Science of Reading. These curricula are designed to teach beginning readers the mechanics of how to read, step by step. Philadelphia spent $25 million on a curriculum overhaul. Ohio mandated new training for all teachers. But results will take time.

As Chalkbeat reports, Philadelphia's third-grade reading scores actually fell the first year after implementing their new research-based curriculum. Teachers expressed concerns about inadequate training. The pattern is similar in Ohio, where third-grade proficiency dropped from 62% to 61% despite millions spent on new textbooks and training.

Andrea McKenzie, a literacy specialist in Ohio's Elyria school district, remains hopeful. Her district adopted an approach based on the Science of Reading in 2022, and this year's third graders are the first to use the new curriculum since kindergarten. "This is the moment I have been waiting for," she says in an article for The 74 Million, noting that progress tests show students are on track for an 11-point jump in proficiency.

Parents: Knowing schools are trying improvements should make you optimistic. But you can’t wait for the system to catch up. There’s too much at stake if you have a beginning reader. So, monitor what your child is learning about phonics in school and enroll in a Reading Program to fill in any gaps before decoding gets more difficult in the next grade.

Building Stamina

Another recent report published in The 74 Million examined four major urban districts using top-tier Science of Reading curricula for five or more years. The good news? Students were learning to decode! The concerning news? Less than 24% of reading lessons actually taught "robust" comprehension. Most lessons focused on surface-level tasks—labeling characters, filling out graphic organizers—rather than understanding meaning and purpose.

Without robust comprehension instruction in earlier grades, students hit late elementary unprepared for challenging reading assignments. Writing for the Center for American Progress, education policy expert Weadé James confirms what’s missing. To see higher NAEP scores, James says that we need to actively teach late elementary students how to go beyond remembering surface-level details. Using Bloom's taxonomy, she explains that proficient readers must apply, analyze, and evaluate texts. "NAEP Proficient and Advanced cognitive targets assess students on their ability to 'infer,' 'compare,' and 'evaluate' across texts," James writes.

Parents: When preparing your child for long-term reading success, phonics is the foundation, but don’t forget that comprehension is the ultimate goal! Navigating the big shift from learning to read to reading to learn is a hurdle that all late elementary schoolers have to overcome. Enroll in a Reading Program to help your child dive deeper into text with comprehension, vocabulary, and nonfiction instruction.

Crossing the Finish Line

The dire high school NAEP results we’ve shared aren't really “news.” As education experts Naomi Hupert and Andrés Henríquez reiterate in K-12 Dive, "This is not a recent or post-pandemic phenomenon." High school seniors have been lagging for decades. Literacy challenges among older students were documented as early as the 1960s, yet implementation of evidence-based solutions has been "scattershot."

Adolescents who struggle with reading "do not lack intelligence or potential,” note Hupert and Henríquez. “What they lack is structured support." Too often, middle and high school teachers are trained as content specialists, not literacy instructors. When funding gets cut, reading coaches or specialists often disappear first.

And how is this for painful irony? In a New York Times Learning Network opinion piece, Natalie Proulx tasks high school seniors with reading a full-length article about the terrible 12th grade NAEP results. She then asks them to analyze the situation with questions like "What is at stake, on both a personal and a societal level, if students graduate without knowing how to read well?" Sadly, one-third haven’t received the reading support they need to complete Proulx’s task at all.

Parents: Don't assume your teenager is fine because they're getting decent grades—encourage reading for pleasure in any format but monitor the complexity of texts they’re dealing with at school. If you have a middle schooler, enroll in a Reading Program to build advanced comprehension and academic skills. Or go for 1-1 tutoring if you have a high schooler. Time is of the essence before heading to college.