Two independent sources of information suggest that American kids are not reading much at their grade level, nor reading enough of the kind of material that will develop college-level reading and vocabulary skills. These sources also help us understand what might be done to reverse students’ decline in reading, the most foundational subject in the school curriculum. In this article I offer concrete suggestions to teachers and education researchers for strengthening the secondary curriculum.
The Decline in Reading
That there is a decline in reading is suggested by the scores on the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) grade 8 reading tests.1
Is the decline related to changes in the school curriculum? Yes, according to Tom Loveless at the Brookings Institution, who undertook an analysis of both the plateau in grade 4 NAEP reading and decline in grade
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