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Utah S Reading Crisis Requires Immediate Intervention To Improve

Leo Migdal
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utah s reading crisis requires immediate intervention to improve

Reading is no longer intuitive. We reach for phones instead of books. Less than half of Utah’s third grade students (48%) are reading on grade level, an astounding fact published by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. One out of two children in the state of Utah cannot read proficiently. For the past five years, that percentage has basically remained steady.

Out of Utah’s 852 public schools this year, the Utah State Board of Education celebrated 60 schools that have achieved a reading rate of 70%. While this is a positive trend, all of our schools should at the very least hit this minimum requirement. This quiet reading crisis in our state and across the nation will eventually explode into unskilled workers faced with limited possibilities. National data shows that only 31% of students are reading at or above grade level. An illiterate population will cost our state and our nation financially and fundamentally. Life will change for all of us if more than half our citizens can no longer read.

A literate workforce has long been the propelling force of America’s middle class. Our democracy relies on literate people who can think and reason for themselves. Impending AI and illiteracy is a combination that will be difficult to weather. Reading connects parents and caregivers to children. It initiates and enhances core values of compassion, empathy and reasoning. Study after study concludes that only a small percentage of preschool-age children are read to on a consistent basis.

Parents and caregivers are the first and most important teachers and role models. If a parent is reading, then a child is reading. Assessing Utah students’ overall performance on a recent national test is akin to countless parent-teacher conference reports: doing well overall — but some areas need improvement. Earlier this week, results from The National Assessment of Educational Progress 2024 scores — aka “The Nation’s Report Card” — were released, revealing mostly steady performance for Utah fourth- and eighth-grade students who participated... In fact, only three states or jurisdictions outperformed Beehive State students. But the decline in Utah’s eighth grade reading scores — reflecting national trends in declining reading performances — caught the attention of the state’s education leaders.

“More children are falling below the proficient level, underscoring the critical need to double down on effective reading interventions and support for our students,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sydnee Dickson in a... SALT LAKE CITY — Educators say reading is the foundation for learning — and in Utah, they stress it's the key to future opportunities. "In a lot of these situations, these children come from homes where parents work multiple jobs. Money is really tight. And some of them don't even have books in the home," said Aaron Hall, Director of Public Relations for Operation Literacy. The nonprofit, whose mission is to help foster a love of reading, delivers free books and brings authors into classrooms at Title I schools — campuses that receive federal funding because a large percentage...

The Education Recovery Scorecard shows Utah ranks 37th nationally in "reading recovery." That measure reflects how well students are catching up since the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts say the impact of low literacy goes beyond English class. "If their literacy is low in their younger grades, as they get older, it starts to impact their science and their math because we have more reading when we get to the older grades,"... Dec 10, 2024, 8:00 PM | Updated: Jan 30, 2025, 9:27 am Third grade teacher Nereida Lopez talks to one of her students before The Great Utah ShakeOut earthquake drill at Heartland Elementary School in West Jordan on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s third grade students are falling behind on their reading skills. But the Utah Legislature has set a goal to reach a higher standard. The state legislature set a mandate in 2022 to raise the reading proficiency up to 70%. Third grade teachers have until 2027 to improve the reading proficiency of their students. Reading assessments are taken 3 times a year. The latest assessment shows third grade reading proficiency is at 48%.

The reading crisis in the United States is among the most solvable problems of our time, but as we commit to the work of solving it, let’s understand how we arrived at the current... That galvanizing reality check gets even more stark when we reckon with the proficiency figure for black American kids: just 18 percent are proficient by fourth grade. The primary driver of the reading crisis is a disconnect between the overwhelming scientific evidence on reading, affirmed by researchers across decades of studies, and the still-widespread practices that have shaped what teachers know... As more and more teachers discover the research evidence and square it with what actually happens with the students in their classrooms, many find that they have to move through some guilt, and overcome... Most refocus to find renewed hope of fulfilling their calling to open up learning for a better future when they learn that 95% of students can learn to read with structured literacy methods. It’s not the kids.

It’s not the teachers. It’s the approach, and it can be changed, and the sooner, the better. Ethical individual teachers and school leaders supporting cohorts of educators have become an unstoppable movement toward reading justice for all our kids. Parents are learning what the families of dyslexic learners have known for years: it’s not enough to assume that teachers know how to teach reading or, when it’s not working, to take comfort in... Too many do not, as the 8th-grade national scores in reading make clear. Parents, teachers, and community activists are advocating for kids whose reading potential is underserved and underestimated through racial and socioeconomic inequality, coming together to insist that reading is an undeniable civil right of our...

Every child deserves the joy of learning through literacy, and the denial of that right amounts to preventable harm. Some of you reading this know, while some of you will have to imagine, what it feels like sitting through year after year of school knowing that your inability to decode words must mean... Choosing to act out behaviorally, to withdraw anxiously, to cheat elaborately, to leave altogether, becomes all too common—because these things provide a shield from the slowly unspooling trauma of being the kid who never... We at the Stern Center embrace our role as catalysts in a hopeful yet insistent change movement of parents, teachers, and leaders who are waking up to the powerful opportunity to make a difference... Teachers are bringing their own experiences, instructional wisdom, and commitment to their students to a growing recognition of how discredited methods and implicit biases have left too many students behind. The statistics below make it plain as day: race and socioeconomic status are too often used as an excuse for reading failure, but we who embrace equity of opportunity can commit to a shared...

By Michelle Torgerson, CEO of Raising a Reader The latest national assessment of educational progress results reveal a sobering reality: American children’s reading skills have reached new lows with little sign of post pandemic recovery. As reported in The New York Times, 40% of 4th graders and 33% of 8th graders now perform at a below basic level in reading and dash the highest percentages in decades. The implications of this literacy crisis are profound impacting students academic success future job prospects and overall well-being At Raising a Reader, we see this as a call to action for over 25 years we have worked to support families educators and those serving young children in fostering early literacy skills helping... The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results reveal a sobering reality: American children’s reading skills have reached new lows, with little sign of post-pandemic recovery.

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