Students reflect on causes, both short- and long-term effects of low literacy rates
By ZOEY MORTAZAVI — features@theaggie.org
As of January 2025, 54% of adult Americans read under a 6th grade level, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). That percentage, over half of the country’s population, is reflective of over 130 million people nationwide. Declining literacy rates can signal a lot of things about a country, including its overall well-being, its democracy levels and a myriad of other elements. UC Davis students shared insights into what these declining rates might be reflective of on a national level, as well as their thoughts on what factors might be primarily contributing.
Vedika Iyer, a second-year civil engineering major, expressed concern that declining literacy rates can not only be reflective of broader societal patterns — they can further exacerbate the problem.
“The literacy rates our country is displaying right now are what the future generations will be capable of, and it’s really concerning,” Iyer said. “So many kids can’t consistently read the news or couldn’t read a book about current events. […] Conservatism does not prioritize public education and access. By not banning books, by funding public programs like NPR and CBS — this is a conservative agenda, and it’s going to severely impact this country’s youth.”
The question of how far this de-prioritization of free and fair access to education and resources will impact the United States’ future is one that can only be answered as time passes. Ongoing efforts by the Donald Trump administration to gradually dissolve the Department of Education would significantly cut back on funding to countless educational and support-based programs for students in addition to deregulating the nation’s schooling system, defunding thousands of need- and merit-based scholarships and loans and generally decreasing improvements to school programs.
Many studies have found that the COVID-19 pandemic deprived many children of crucial years of schooling in person, likely stunting some growth significantly. This is well reflected in numbers; The NCES conducted a study that showed that among 13-year-olds across the U.S., reading and mathematics scores have dropped to the lowest levels seen in decades — similarly to scores from the 1970s.
There has undoubtedly been a massive educational expansion since that time, but much else has changed. Studies including that of the NCES are indicating that factors like mental health play a larger role in today’s world, with online platforms increasing cyberbullying and other external factors that impact general students’ performances.
Social media, short-form content consumption and digestible forms of entertainment and media have also likely exacerbated the decline of literacy rates across the board. Recent studies have reported that short-form content addiction and academic procrastination are inextricably linked — thus marking a connection between students’ inability to consume long-form content as effectively.
Elementary education is another important factor in trends surrounding declining literacy rates. A classically utilized teaching style among elementary educators is what is known as the “whole language” strategy. This method focuses strongly on the meaning of words and recognition; It commonly utilized books like the popular “Dick and Jane” series, which used word repetition as a tool for teaching.
Debates starting as early as the 1950s known as the “reading wars” resulted in the widespread implementation of learning through phonics, which follows a more bottom-up approach and focuses on letter and sound groupings over whole words.
Contemporary statistics have led to the newest approach, known largely as the “Science of Reading.” This approach combines elements of both strategies, implementing scientific research to fuel reading education based on what has empirically been proven to work. Without an overarching branch keeping a standard or method for teaching in mind, it is possible that further regressions or inconsistencies in these teaching methods will follow suit.
Many priorities in the United States are undergoing a tangible shift, as students like Iyer are discussing. Under the Trump administration, a resurgence in conservatism and more traditional values have emphasized privatized schooling and a re-implementation of older methods and traditions, including a currently in-progress Texas bill attempting to display the 10 Commandments in public classrooms throughout the state.
Without delving into the more secular side of this pending legislation, some American elementary school districts still utilize elements of whole language instruction over phonics instruction, sometimes not providing funding to phonics-based reading programs after earlier grades. Whole language instruction offers challenges where students are expected to be able to guess based on context clues, whereas phonic-based learning provides more of a basis into understanding patterns and nuances within the language being taught.
Many educators believe that a balanced approach is the key for students to truly learn to be good and well-rounded readers — but there is still much to explore in terms of their effectiveness.
In an overall sense, there has been an observed stagnation in students’ literacy improvements, according to recent studies. These conflicting methods may see even less resolve with educational funding being cut. Across the board, elementary teaching methods have seen a decline in their improvement, with scholars particularly noting that there has not yet been a rebound from COVID-19’s impacts on youth education.
Cooper Cook, a fourth-year mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering double major, said that this decline in improvement was most likely unavoidable.
“Regardless of the improvement in our elementary-level teaching styles, a decline in the improvement was inevitable, because we can only do so much to increase literacy rates across the entire United States,” Cook said.
Beyond just how student literacy is being handled inside the classroom and on a national level, students are weighing in on the implications of a country that is observing a decline in literacy rates. These patterns can often signal societal shifts, not just in terms of economic or social disparities but also in terms of democracy levels.
Clover Sutton, a second-year international agricultural development major, commented on declining literacy rates being a common sign that fascism is on the rise.
“Declining literacy rates are a sign that fascism is on the rise because the more we become complicit and unable to question those in power, the more likely [those powers] are to get away with more atrocities,” Sutton said.
Sutton continued by describing how fast-form content through social media platforms has contributed to these shifts.
“We live in a society where content is constantly being pumped out,” Sutton said. “Everything’s a trend. There are so many fast things. No one can read a book anymore, and it’s because we depend on such short-lived trends and we’re constantly scrolling. We don’t read anything longer than two paragraphs — [‘too long; didn’t read’] (TL;DR) and all of that — read it!”
Regardless of the countless contributors to this systemic issue, students at UC Davis have noticed patterns both leading to the rise and spread of illiteracy in the United States. This general decline can be attributed to many factors and could lead to a number of outcomes. As these UC Davis students have expressed, it seems that the time is now to stay civically engaged and continue to read — not only within the classroom, but in our everyday lives.
Written by: Zoey Mortazavi — features@theaggie.org
