Senate committee unveils plan to turn American reading scores around

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee released guidance on Friday for “preventing a lost generation” and stopping the downward spiral of student reading test scores.

The report addresses current national reports that show two-thirds of fourth and eighth graders are not proficient in reading and warns that illiteracy in younger years often leads to higher dropout and incarceration rates later in life for students. The committee recommends that states adopt proven methods for teaching children reading skills and address failing teacher education programs to get students back on track.

“Teaching students how to read effectively should be the top priority of America’s K-12 education system,” the report reads. “The challenges in achieving this points to a deeper problem: an education system that for too long has accepted a status quo that fails our children.”

Teaching methods such as the science of reading have been gaining popularity among states that have historically had the lowest literacy rates and have proven successful. The report encourages more states to adopt better, evidence-based education methods and increased support for struggling students, such as financially assisting families with additional tutoring needs and tailoring approaches to individual students rather than applying blanket methods.

“The status quo of K-12 education is failing children and families. We are at risk of having an entire generation of children fail to become productive adults if reading proficiency does not improve,” Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, committee chairman, said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “As Chairman of the Senate HELP Committee, I am committed to improving literacy and reforming our education system to put children and families first.”

Some states’ solutions to solving the reading crisis have been to lower graduation standards rather than improve education. Teachers’ unions also seek to stand in the way of improving education in some cases, complaining that a better curriculum is “burdensome” on educators and blocking efforts to pass comprehensive reform plans.

The committee also recommends that states do a better job at preparing aspiring teachers. Part of the issue the report highlights is failing teacher education programs that don’t teach educators how to teach, saying they tend to be “more concerned with theory than the practical means of running a classroom.” Congress is recommending that states hold these colleges of education accountable by threatening their accreditation or not hiring teachers from programs that produce unsuccessful educators.

Parental rights are also crucial to repairing the current education system, the HELP committee stated. The committee suggested states should allow parents more transparency in classroom ongoings and make educational data accessible so parents can provide feedback about teachers and curricula and make more informed decisions about where to send their children to school.

Test scores in reading and math have declined for decades, but the fall accelerated after the COVID-19 lockdowns kept students out of classrooms for months. Data from the 2024 Nation’s Report Card revealed that about 40% of fourth graders are measuring below even basic reading level, the largest percentage since 2002, while approximately one-third of eighth graders, the largest percentage ever, are falling below basic level.

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