Are we in a literacy crisis?

There is currently a literacy crisis happening in the U.S., one that disproportionately affects students of color, and that cannot be ignored. Literacy is one of the major civil rights issues of our time, and our children's future — and our nation's democracy — depends on us addressing it now.

Are literacy rates in the US declining?

According to McKinsey & Company, U.S. students lost the equivalent of nearly half a school year in reading instruction due to the pandemic. In 2022, reading scores dropped to levels that we haven't seen since 2005.

Why is US literacy so low?

Hispanics, older people, and incarcerated people are more likely to be low literate than other US adults. Major factors influencing literacy development include education, socioeconomic status, learning English as a second language, learning disabilities, and crime.

Why are kids struggling to read now?

Children may struggle with reading for a variety of reasons, including limited experience with books, speech and hearing problems, and poor phonemic awareness.

How serious is America's literacy problem?

In the United States, 54% of American adults read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, and nearly one in five adults reads below a third-grade level. Lower literacy rates directly correlate to higher unemployment rates, reduced income, and overall impacts U.S. competitiveness on the global stage.

Inside America’s literacy crisis and efforts to change how kids learn to read | ABCNL

What states have the worst literacy rates?

New Mexico has the lowest literacy rate in the US, with a rate of 70.9%. California has the second lowest literacy rate, at 71.6%, while both Texas and Mississippi have literacy rates of 71.8%, making them the third and fourth states with the lowest literacy rates in the US.

Who has the worst literacy rate?

On the other end of the spectrum, eight countries have a literacy rate of less than 40%: Chad (26.76%), Mali (30.76%), South Sudan (34.52%), Botswana (36.75%), Afghanistan (37.27%), Niger (37.27%), Niger (37.34%), Central African Republic (37.49%), and Somalia (37.80%).

Is phonics making a comeback?

By the start of this school year, ExcelinEd found at least 30 states, including Washington, D.C., and New York City, the nation's largest public school district, required phonics-based "science of reading" policies to address the sagging scores.

What percentage of American kids can't read?

Biennial testing through NAEP consistently shows that two thirds of U.S. children are unable to read with proficiency. An astounding 40 percent are essentially nonreaders.

Why is reading suddenly so hard?

Like breathing or walking, we don't give the ability much thought unless it begins to deteriorate. But trouble reading can develop at any age for a variety of reasons, including difficulty concentrating, mild cognitive impairment, and physical changes.

Which US state has the highest literacy rate?

What percent of China is literate?

The literacy rate reached 99.83% in 2021. Between 2015 to 2021, the literacy rate of China grew by 0.106%. On a year-on-year basis, the literacy rate increased by 0.018% in 2021.

What are the 5 levels of literacy?

The five stages of literacy development include emergent literacy, alphabetic fluency, words and patterns, intermediate reading, and advanced reading.

Are math scores declining?

In the national sample of 13-year-old students, average math scores fell by 9 points between 2020 and 2023.

What's the literacy rate in Japan?

Japan's adult literacy rate is at around 99 percent. According to the results of OECD's PISA Programme, Japanese fifteen-year-olds showcased high levels of education in the international comparison, scoring higher than the OECD standard in all rounds of assessment.

Who has the lowest literacy rate in us?

1. California

California's 23.1% of adults lacking basic prose literacy skills make California have the lowest literacy rate of 76.9%.

Why is illiteracy so high in the US?

Poverty plays a large role in whether children develop literacy skills during their early years. Some 22% of children in the U.S. live in poverty, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Some 43% of adults living in poverty have low literacy levels.

What grade do most kids read?

First and Second Grade (Ages 6–7)

Kids usually begin to: read familiar stories. "sound out" or decode unfamiliar words. use pictures and context to figure out unfamiliar words.

Why did schools stop teaching phonics?

Back in the day, there were these “reading wars” about the best way to teach reading. Fluent readers read by sight, they don't “sound out” words, which is why that approach dominated teaching. Then again, some children are stumped by whole language approaches, and benefit by phonics instruction.

What replaced phonics?

Phonics isn't new — it dates to at least the 19th century. What's newer is the “whole language” approach to reading. The idea is to teach words rather than letters. It was persuasive in the mid-20th century, when “Dick and Jane” books replaced phonics-based McGuffey Readers.

Why was phonics abandoned?

Instead, they substituted storybooks and expected youngsters to learn to read “naturally,” somehow absorbing meaning without being taught basic reading skills. Some schools prohibited phonics on the theory it stifled children and turned reading into a chore that children would hate and resist.

What do they teach instead of phonics?

Still, many districts continue to teach what's known as balanced literacy, which relies heavily on a technique known as “cuing,” which encourages students to guess unfamiliar words based on context or pictures rather than learn the underlying structure of words.

What country is the lowest in education?

Which US state has the highest childhood literacy rate?

34% of the people 18 and older with low literacy proficiency weren't born in the United States. The state with the highest rate of child literacy is Massachusetts, with over 80% of kids there having good proficiency in reading.