On June 8 and 9, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS) will host a Reading Summit to address one of the most important issues confronting American education today: the declining reading performance of America's lowest-performing students and the growing gap between low- and high-performing students.
At this 2-day virtual event, participants will explore the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), as well as other IES data, and learn strategies to help educators and low-performing readers make progress.
Learn more about the summit's agenda and speakers—including IES Director Mark Schneider, NCES Commissioner James L. Woodworth, and NCES Associate Commissioner Peggy Carr—and register to participate (registration is free).
In the meantime, explore some of the data NCES collects on K–12 literacy and reading achievement, which show that the scores of students in the lowest-performing groups are decreasing over time.
- The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) administers reading assessments to 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students. The most recent results from 2019 show that average reading scores for students in the 10th percentile (i.e., the lowest-performing students) decreased between 2017 and 2019 at grade 4 (from 171 to 168) and grade 8 (from 219 to 213) and decreased between 2019 and 2015 at grade 12 (from 233 to 228).
- The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is an international comparative assessment that measures 4th-grade students' reading knowledge and skills. The most recent findings from 2016 show that the overall U.S. average score (549) was higher than the PIRLS scale centerpoint (500), but at the 25th percentile, U.S. 4th-graders scored lower in 2016 (501) than in 2011 (510).
- The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a study of 15-year-old students' performance in several subjects, including reading literacy. The 2018 results show that, although the overall U.S. average reading score (505) was higher than the OECD average score (487), at the 10th percentile, the U.S. average score in 2018 (361) was not measurably different from the score in 2015 and was lower than the score in 2012 (378).
NCES also collects data on young children's literacy knowledge and activities as well as the literacy competencies of adults. Here are a few data collections and tools for you to explore:
- The National Household Education Surveys (NHES) program collects data on young children's home literacy activities with family members. See the section below for more on these data.
- The International Early Learning Study (IELS) is an international play-based assessment of 5-year-olds' knowledge and skills in four key areas, including emergent literacy. Learn about the 2018 pilot study.
- The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) assesses the skills of adults across the world in various domains, including literacy.
This year, the Condition of Education includes a newly updated indicator on literacy activities that parents reported doing with young children at home. Here are some key findings from this indicator, which features data from the 2019 NHES Early Childhood Program Participation Survey:
In the week before the parents were surveyed,
- 85 percent of 3- to 5-year-olds were read to by a family member three or more times.
- 87 percent of 3- to 5-year-olds were told a story by a family member at least once.
- 96 percent of 3- to 5-year-olds were taught letters, words, or numbers by a family member at least once.
In the month before the parents were surveyed,
- 37 percent of 3- to 5-year-olds visited a library with a family member at least once.
Be sure to read the full indicator in the 2021 Condition of Education, which was released in May, for more data on young children's literacy activities, including analyses by race/ethnicity, mother's educational attainment, and family income.
Don't forget to follow NCES on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date on the latest findings and trends in literacy and reading data and register for the IES Reading Summit to learn more about this topic from experts in the field.
By Megan Barnett, AIR
