[CALIBK12] Are we reading less? Are we reading worse?

[Stephen Krashen]

Are we reading less? Are we reading worse?
Sent to the Washington Post, Feb. 18, 2008

Both Susan Jacoby (“Dumbing of America,” Feb. 17)
and Howard Gardner (“What will happen to reading and
writing in our time,” Feb. 17) assume that the
National Endowment of the Arts’ (NEA) finding that
we are reading less and reading worse is correct. It
is not clear that this is the case. 

For example, the NEA cites a 2006 Pew study showing
that only 38% of adults said they read something
yesterday. Not cited by the NEA is a 2002 Pew study
reporting that 34% read something yesterday, nor one
published in 1991 giving a figure of 31%. Another
major study published in 1945 found that only 21% said
they read something yesterday. Reading seems to be
increasing, not decreasing.

According to a 2005 Kaiser Family Foundation Report,
when magazine, newspaper and the internet are counted
as reading, young people report reading a lot, about
an hour a day. This agrees with data from the recent
PIRLS report of reading in 40 countries.

Fourth and eighth graders have shown no decline on
national reading tests over the last two decades. The
NEA reports that reading scores for 12th graders have
dropped four points since 1984, not much on a test in
which the top 10% scored nearly 100 points more than
the lowest 10%. Also, if a different year is chosen
for comparison, there is no change at all: 12th
graders today read just as well as 12th graders did in
1971. 

The real problem in literacy in the United States is
that children of poverty have little to read at home,
in school, or in their communities. As a result, they
do not read very much and do not read very well. 

Our most urgent task is to substantially improve
libraries in high-poverty areas. Studies show that
when interesting and comprehensible reading material
is available, children read. Recent experience also
confirms this, i.e. the gigantic sales of the Harry
Potter books.

Stephen Krashen