American students’ reading skills keep slipping, and education researchers at Harvard say the slide has reached a tipping point. But in a report published on 29 October, faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education also said the literacy crisis is fixable — if schools, families and policymakers act together.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, US reading scores have trended downward since 2013 for eighth graders and since 2015 for fourth graders, a slide that began before the pandemic.
FAKTA
- The trend: US reading scores falling since 2013 (eighth grade) and 2015 (fourth grade), according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
- Proficiency: The 2024 Nation’s Report Card found only 31% of fourth graders reading at the proficient or advanced level.
- International standing: On the 2025 PISA exam, US 15-year-olds were outperformed in reading by peers in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Estonia, Australia and the United Kingdom.
- Reading for fun: The share of eighth graders who read for fun almost every day fell from 27% in 2012 to 14% in 2025.
- The response: Harvard experts propose school-based accountability, universal pre-K and reading support that continues past third grade.
The numbers behind the warning
The 2024 Nation’s Report Card found only 31% of fourth graders reading at the proficient or advanced level. Internationally, the picture is equally sobering: on the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), US 15-year-olds were outperformed in reading by students in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Estonia, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Perhaps most telling is what happens outside school. The share of eighth graders who read for fun almost every day fell from 27% in 2012 to 14% in 2025, suggesting that reading is losing its place in young people’s daily lives.
What Harvard experts say would help
Faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education told the Harvard Gazette the decline is fixable, but it requires a collective effort. Among the steps they proposed are school-based accountability, universal pre-K, and reading support that continues past third grade.
Start early, stay the course
Ed School lecturer Robert Jenkins said the focus should be on foundational learning in the early grades. The message from the researchers is that reading support cannot stop once children leave the early primary years; it must continue through the later school years, when texts grow harder and the demands on young readers grow with them.
Conclusion
The literacy slide did not begin with the pandemic, and it will not reverse on its own. Harvard’s researchers argue, however, that with early investment, sustained support and accountability in schools, the trend can still be turned around.
