🌅 Today’s stat: 67%

Sunrise Stat
February 06, 2025

The “Nation’s Report Card” found the share of American eighth graders last year reading below a level considered basic was the largest in the assessment’s history (data beginning in 1992), up from 30% in 2022 and 27% in 2019. The share of fourth graders scoring below basic in reading comprehension (40%) was the largest in 20 years, marking similar increases from 2022 (37%) and 2019 (34%).

The record-low reading comprehension scores last year continue the downward trend among students first observed in 2019, before the COVID pandemic. Compared to 2019, average reading scores among fourth graders were lower in 39 states, while eighth-grade scores were lower or the same in every state plus Washington, D.C.

The growing share of students below the basic level of reading comprehension has contributed to a widening gap between higher- and lower-performing students in both grades. In response, lawmakers in 37 states have passed laws or enacted new policies prioritizing students’ reading comprehension, combining the long-used phonics-based approach, which teaches students strategies like guessing or memorizing words based on pictures, with the updated “science of reading” approach, which teaches reading much more explicitly.