Children are often taught to read using books that are believed to be "just right" for their current skill level. However, a growing body of research suggests that this approach may be contributing to the decline in reading performance across the United States.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), American literacy levels have begun to drop after decades of stagnation. The average reading scores for 12th graders in 2024 were three points lower than in 2019. More students are failing to achieve the basic reading levels needed for successful schoolwork.
Experts point to various potential causes for the disappointing results, from increased screen time for children to insufficient phonics instruction or the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic school closures.
However, Timothy E. Shanahan, a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Literacy at the University of Illinois in Chicago and author of the book Leveled Reading, Leveled Lives, offers a compelling alternative explanation. He suggests that the most common reading instruction method used in American schools actually limits students’ opportunities to learn. New research indicates that students can achieve greater learning gains when they are taught with more challenging texts.
The old idea of a “goldilocks” approach to books
The conventional wisdom in reading instruction stems from a concept proposed in the 1940s by education scholar Emmett Betts. He hypothesized that if books were either too easy or too difficult, a student's reading development would be hindered. The accepted method became teaching children with books that were "just the right fit." This meant using texts that students could read with a 95% word accuracy and between 75% to 89% comprehension.
Nearly a century later, most American schools still rely on this practice. Schools frequently test children to determine the appropriate reading level, then divide classes into reading groups based on these assigned book levels. While many students read texts that match their grade, those who cannot are often demoted to books below their grade level in the hope of accelerating their progress.
This practice is often unknown to parents. Despite more than one-third of elementary students reading below grade level, about 90% of parents believe their children are reading at or above grade level.
The problem with this popular, decades-old method is that students often spend time working with books they can already read quite well. Consequently, they may have very little left to learn from those texts.
Why new research challenges the current system
For over 40 years, there was minimal research confirming the effectiveness of teaching reading with easy-to-follow texts, yet the number of schools adopting this approach soared. Despite the federal and state governments spending tens of billions of dollars since 2000 to boost literacy rates, there have been no improvements in reading achievement for middle school or high school students since 1970.
Fortunately, emerging research is finally challenging these widely accepted instructional practices that may be holding children back rather than helping them succeed.
New studies on the effectiveness—or rather, the ineffectiveness—of the old method are accumulating. They show that teaching students at their measured reading level, rather than their grade level, provides no benefit or can even slow how much children learn.
Professor Shanahan emphasizes that significant reading gains will only be realized when children are taught to read with sufficiently challenging and substantive texts.
Picture: One-month-old Scarlett learning computer engineering (ChildUp.com)
