Students in the United States are struggling to read at a basic level, and it’s a growing problem.
The rising illiteracy rates in the United States are startling, if not outright worrisome.
According to a September 2025 article by The Harvard Gazette, “40-percent of fourth graders and about a third of eighth graders” are failing to meet even the basic level of reading proficiency.
Think about that for a second. One third of eighth graders cannot read at a basic level.
Students aren’t the only ones struggling, as a July 2025 article by the National University mentions, 54 percent of adults in the U.S read below a sixth-grade level.
As the literacy rates in the U.S continue to decline, more people are beginning to question the reason why.
Here are 5 surprising factors that may be contributing to the rising illiteracy rates:
- The U.S. has moved away from teaching phonics in classrooms
Since the 1916’s and 1970’s, the United States has steadily moved away from the teaching of phonics towards “whole word” and “sight word” approaches.
To explain: phonics is the method used for centuries to teach students English – in both Great Britian and Colonial U.S. It involves students learning the sounds of individual letters, as opposed to “whole word” or “sight word” methods, which emphasize the memorization of whole words.
Only recently has it become clear that students being taught with these alternative methods can only memorize so many words. Unfortunately, the delay in responsiveness means that illiteracy and even dyslexic tendencies have been the lasting results – coinciding with the downward literacy trend in the U.S.
Since 2019, many states have been scrambling to undo the decades of bad practices. As an article in Stateline described, some are returning to the teaching of phonics, while others are trying new methods – with mixed results.
On the bright side, Mississippi seems to shine as the gold standard, going from being scored 49 nationally in 2013, to eighth by 2023. Their success underscores the importance of statewide cooperation, phonics training, and a focus on teacher development.
- There has been a rise in eBook use and AI–related cheating
A second possible reason for the nationwide decline in literacy rates may be tied back to the rise of digital eBooks and cheating using AI technology.
First, despite their growing popularity, digital resources and eBooks may not be the best alternative to physical textbooks.
According to the Shanker Institute, “[t]he barrage of digital stimuli fragments attention and undermines the sustained focus that deep reading requires.” Often, online programs and digital resources promote quick reading instead of reading to understand deeply. Students learn to skim-read assignments, especially during timed exercises.
As multiple studies have shown, including this one by the University of Southampton, skim reading decreases overall reading comprehension – with subjects skipping over multiple words in sentences in order to gain only a general idea of the paragraph’s contents.
With more and more professors turning to online assignments and online resources to teach their students without understanding the full implications, or actively guiding their students through the technology, more students are turning to quick answers to help them make their grades – which brings us to the topic of AI.
Most eBooks and online assignments offer students timed quizzes or comprehension exams, which teachers rely on as part of the students’ overall grade. Because students are more apt to skim-read when online – skipping big words or long sentences – their comprehension is down, meaning that when faced with a quiz they turn to AI or Google searches instead of re-reading the materials provided. This cycle of incomprehension only increases as students move through the semester, leading to a deeper reliance on AI.
Going back to a statistic shared earlier in this post, an astonishing one third of eight graders cannot read at a basic level. With so little reading comprehension, how are they managing to make it through high school at all? AI might be the answer.
- Students are more isolated
When the country shut down, daily routines changed overnight: offices closed, online shopping surged, and video calls became the default. Many adults can still tell you where they were in the spring of 2020 and how quickly life moved online.
At the same time, a notable concern emerged in K-12 education: remote learning was not the same for all students. Students that were already doing well in school seemed to thrive using online learning, and the students that were struggling fell further behind. These students may have been completely left behind, not because their educators did not care, but simply could not see the struggling student from beyond their screens
National data aligns with this uneven impact. In an article of EducationWeek, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), while math scores are slowly recovering, literacy skills continue to fall. This could be caused by educators focusing on rehabilitating STEM skills and leaving reading, writing, and grammar as an afterthought. NAEP has also shown in recent audits that score for reading have fallen again, showing that even though schools have returned to in person classes, the damage has not been completely resolved. Another major concern is finding the funding to get test scores above pre-pandemic levels
The takeaway is not that online learning has failed, but it caused existing gaps to worsen. Recovery in literacy rates will require support for struggling students, a consistent curriculum that supports student needs, and increased resources programs focused on students at risk of being left behind.
- Schools are buying bad curriculums
Currently many U.S school districts are continuing to invest millions into reading curriculum that aren’t backed by evidence-based literacy research.
A report by Education Week shares that several of these widely used programs fail to teach students foundational reading skills, with methods and skills such as phonics no longer being taught at all in some of these plans.
Systematic comprehension and literary analysis have severely decreased as many schools no longer require their students to read full length novels, rather opting for exerts. While exerts are a great tool and have a place in the classroom, teachers have expressed their dissatisfaction.
When districts use these resources, teachers are frequently required to stick to them entirely, even if they are well aware that the approaches are ineffective. This hinders the flexibility of instruction and denies struggling readers of the kind of organized help they need.
Consequently, regardless of teacher effort or student motivation, poor curriculum selections can hinder literacy improvement at a systemic level.
- Reading is no longer enforced in the home
For the most of history regarding the American education system, learning didn’t stop at the classroom door. Development started in the home, motor skills, communication, discipline, parental figures up until recently to pride in playing a critical role in their child’s education.
Children were expected to read at home, work on homework with siblings or parents, in combination with seeing their parents read often as well as interact with long texts/ forms of media regularly.
Today’s households lack literary enrichment, often unintentionally.
It’s becoming increasingly typical for both parents to work longer hours. Family reading time has been replaced by iPads and overstimulating streaming; even useful reading tasks like menus, instructions, and lists are made easier with voice-activated tools like Google Home and Alexa. Students who read at home—not just novels—develop greater vocabulary, comprehension abilities, and fluency, according to numerous studies.
Imagine how greatly a child would benefit from reading and hour a day with a parent, a National Library of Medicine article states “literacy activities at home could be more influential than intervention programs because the amount of exposure can be massive and span several years and the exposure can be more flexibly timed and child-initiated” lacking parental support leaves educators overwhelmed and unable to effectively aid struggling students because the demand is simply too high.
Literacy cannot survive on school instruction alone. Without consistent exposure and practice outside the classroom, even the most technical curriculum and talented teachers are left fighting an uphill battle.
Work Cited:
Torppa M, Vasalampi K, Eklund K, Niemi P. Long-term effects of the home literacy environment on reading development: Familial risk for dyslexia as a moderator. J Exp Child Psychol. 2022 Mar;215:105314. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105314. Epub 2021 Nov 16. PMID: 34798592.
Quintero, E., & Brennan-Gac, T. (2024, September 18). The threat of technology to students’ reading brains. Albert Shanker Institute. https://www.shankerinstitute.org/blog/technology-and-reading
Schwartz, S. (2025, January 29). Reading scores fall to new low on NAEP, fueled by declines for struggling students. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/reading-scores-fall-to-new-low-on-naep-fueled-by-declines-for-struggling-students/2025/01
Not Trivial. (2012, April 11). Why did the educators in the U.S. abandon phonics? https://nottrivialbook.com/2012/04/11/why-did-the-educators-in-the-u-s-abandon-phonics/
Williams, R. (2025, April 30). As reading scores fall, states turn to phonics — but not without a fight. Stateline. https://stateline.org/2025/04/30/as-reading-scores-fall-states-turn-to-phonics-but-not-without-a-fight/
Spaull, N. (2025, January 15). Mississippi’s education miracle: A model for global literacy reform. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/mississippis-education-miracle-a-model-for-global-literacy-reform-251895
Fitzsimmons, G. (2014). Skim reading: An adaptive strategy for reading on the web [PDF]. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gemma-Fitzsimmons/publication/263651809_Skim_Reading_An_Adaptive_Strategy_for_Reading_on_the_Web/links/0f31753b69aa85703d000000/Skim-Reading-An-Adaptive-Strategy-for-Reading-on-the-Web.pdf