Key points:
Ameer Baraka knew something was wrong long before anyone gave it a name.
Ameer grew up in poverty in Louisiana and had difficulty learning to read, but no one caught it. By third grade, he had already decided he would never amount to anything. By his teenage years, he was incarcerated for the first time. It wasn’t until his second prison sentence, in his early 20s, that an on-site teacher finally screened him, and he was diagnosed with dyslexia.
More than 70 percent of incarcerated Americans cannot read above a fourth-grade level, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The pipeline from unaddressed reading struggles to lost opportunity is well-documented. And if we are serious when we say, “All means all,” we need to begin to walk the walk.
NAEP’s recent report on the long-term trend of reading and math scores for 9- and 13-year-olds continues to confirm what we already know: There is work to do. And the opportunities afforded to our young people depend on it.
Among the findings on how older elementary and middle school students in the United States are performing in reading and math are:
- Average reading and math scores for 9-year-olds increased by four points compared to the previous assessment in 2022.
- Average reading and math scores for 13-year-olds remained stagnant compared to the 2023 assessment and below pre-pandemic levels.
- Performance among lower-performing students narrowed achievement gaps among 9-year-olds, with gains among students in the 10th and 25th percentiles.
For more than a decade, we have watched troubling trends emerge in student learning and achievement. The pandemic undoubtedly accelerated learning challenges, but many of the declines began long before school buildings ever closed. And while learning loss from COVID has added to an already challenging situation, we need to stop framing this around the pandemic and address the real issue.
Even though there are “promising gains” for 9-year-olds since the last assessment, the reality is these scores simply catch them up to where we stood in 2013–and scores have been declining across the board ever since.
The lack of progress among 13-year-olds should be a shock to the system. It’s not OK to let them continue to languish in mediocrity. We are not facing an adolescent literacy challenge. We are facing an adolescent literacy emergency.
We also cannot ignore that student engagement with reading has steadily declined. Students don’t engage in what they don’t do well, and the less they read, the less they practice and improve their reading, which becomes a self-perpetuating cycle of reading failure.
These findings underscore the need for laser-focused attention on middle-grade instruction, student engagement, and aligned academic support so secondary students can access their increasingly complex grade-level materials. They need evidence-based instruction to help strengthen the foundational skill gaps they may have, and the age-appropriate instruction required of the increasingly complex reading expected of them each year.
The answer is not another pendulum swing in education–it’s not quick fixes or silver bullets. Sustainable improvement comes from implementing what science of reading and science of math research tell us works, then committing to it over time. Let’s look at the gains among younger students as a promising sign that strong core instruction and intervention lead to strong results.
Every score in this report represents a child who deserves the opportunity to become a confident reader, capable problem-solver, and lifelong learner. The stakes are high. Research consistently shows strong educational outcomes linked to healthier communities, stronger economies, and greater civic engagement.
This latest report should prompt urgency but also reinforce hope. We know more than ever about how students learn. We have stronger evidence than ever about effective instruction. The challenge before us is not figuring out what works. It is ensuring that every child, in every classroom, has access to the high-quality instruction they need to unlock learning progress.
At 18 years old, Ameer was a statistic. He was incarcerated with no real path out of his dire situation. Until a compassionate teacher gave him the knowledge of and skills he needed to learn to read and, ultimately, lead a life full of opportunities.
Today, Ameer is an Emmy-nominated actor, author, and national dyslexia advocate. His story is remarkable evidence that, with the right instruction, at the right time, virtually all children can learn to read, and it can change the trajectory of their lives.
We do not need to reinvent the wheel. We need the collective will and courage to implement the bold, evidence-based moves that work.
Ameer’s calling today–to ensure that no child experiences what he endured–is aligned with my own: to help all children flourish as literate citizens of the 21st century. Every child, as he says, deserves the freedom that comes with being able to read.
