No miracles: 8th-grade reading stalls even in 'surge' states

Fourth-grade reading scores are way up in Southern states that changed reading curricula, trained teachers in the "science of reading" and provided literacy coaches, writes Hechinger's Jill Barshay. Mississippi, which passed reforms in 2013, went from worst in the nation to above average in fourth-grade reading by 2024. But there's no "Mississippi miracle" for eighth-grade reading, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores show.

“Mississippi moved a mountain in fourth grade,” said Dan McGrath, a retired federal education official, told Barshay. But progress has stalled for eighth graders.

Learning the fundamentals, such as how to decode words, is not enough says reading researcher Timothy Shanahan. Students need to learn to break down multisyllabic words and understand word roots. He also "thinks schools should teach students how to read grade-level texts, even if they are challenging, and provide guidance on vocabulary, syntax and sentence structure," writes Barshay.

Reading experts disagree on how much time to spend teaching background knowledge, vocabulary and comprehension strategies, she writes.

"Harvard researchers found some success with specially designed social studies and science lessons (not reading lessons)," writes Barshay. However, "a 2024 meta-analysis didn’t find short-term reading benefits from knowledge-building units in classrooms." It may take more time to build students' knowledge.

Some "knowledge-building" curricula are too scattershot to build knowledge or vocabulary, writes Natalie Wexler. Science teacher Olivia Mullins provides examples here and here.

Teaching strategies, such as identifying the author's main point, has limited benefits, says Carl Hendrick, a prominent proponent of explicitly teaching children background knowledge and vocabulary, she writes. It may help to have students write a summary of what they've read, but after 10 hours of learning strategies, there are diminishing returns, he writes in a March 2026 newsletter.

When a student cannot grasp the main idea of a passage, the problem is almost never that they lack a "strategy." The problem is that they do not understand enough of the words. -- Carl Hendrick 

Many blame screen time for cutting into reading time. When students do read, they lack "reading stamina." They have trouble staying focused.

"Eighth-grade reading scores are a national problem, not a Southern one," writes Chad Aldeman. Scores are down 10 points since 2013. From 2022 to 2024, when math scores rose slightly, reading scores continued to fall. The lowest-performing students lost the most ground.

Eighth-grade reading scores rose 5 points for Department of Defense schools, 4 points for District of Columbia schools and 0.4 points in Mississippi, he writes. Louisiana, which declined by 0.9 points, ranks next. In short, "compared to the national decline of nearly 10 points, these 'Southern Surge' states are among the best performers in the country — even in 8th grade reading."

New York City public schools will focus on middle and high school reading, says Kamar Samuels, the new chancellor. reports Alex Zimmerman on Chalkbeat.

Middle and high school teachers “love books, they are wonderful at comparing themes, they’re wonderful at getting most of our kids … excited about reading,” Samuels said at a literacy conference. “But what they’re not necessarily good at is teaching our kids to read.”

Just under half of high school freshmen read below grade level, Zimmerman writes. "For the first time this school year, all campuses — including middle and high schools — are required to use city-approved intervention programs for struggling readers," and all campuses will transition to city-approved reading programs by 2027.