The 2025 PISA results found that reading scores for U.S. students fell sharply from 2022. These latest results underscore the urgency of our nation’s literacy crisis
September 10, 2026 by Shayna Levitan 
We’ve known for a while that there is a literacy crisis here in the United States, one that disproportionately affects students of color, and that cannot be ignored.
The latest evidence? The 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, a reading, math, and science test of 15-year-olds conducted in more than 90 developed countries across the globe, found that reading scores for U.S. students fell sharply from 2022.
Some headlines noted that our nation moved up relative to other countries, but policymakers, education leaders, and advocates should be wary of taking comfort in this comparison. Our country’s ranking only improved because other countries’ scores declined at a faster rate.
These results illustrate how deep our literacy crisis is. Far too many students are not being afforded the right to read.
More than one in four U.S. test-takers (26%) were identified as “low performers” in reading on the latest PISA, meaning they scored below PISA’s baseline level 2. Students at this level can, for example, identify the main idea of a moderate-length text, understand relationships and construct meaning through basic inferences, and compare claims and evaluate reasons based on short, explicit statements. They have more difficulty comprehending lengthy texts, determining which information is relevant, reasoning from a deep understanding of extended texts, and comparing, contrasting, and integrating information across multiple perspectives. These are exactly the higher-order skills that our students need but are not afforded as they enter a rapidly evolving world and workforce.
The PISA results echo the most recent Nation’s Report Card (NAEP), which not only made clear the persistent reading declines our country is experiencing, but also how they disproportionately impact students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, students with disabilities, and multilingual learners.
These results illustrate how deep our literacy crisis is. Far too many students are not being afforded the right to read. Literacy underpins how young people learn, the careers they can pursue, how they engage with their communities and democracy, and their ability to build the futures that they deserve.
Many state policymakers, local education leaders, and educators are working tirelessly to strengthen literacy outcomes by:
Unfortunately, much of it is being undermined by recent policy changes by the Trump administration.
Last month, the administration ended guidance on disparate discipline, which lets schools off the hook for punishing Black and Latino students more often — barring them from learning. The latest Civil Rights Data Collection, which includes important information on educator experience, discipline, and access to advanced coursework, was released as a series of cumbersome, inaccessible files rather than clear, accessible data that can help parents, educators, and advocates make lasting change to support literacy. These changes come on top of budget and Congressional proposals to drastically cut K-12 education funding and the administration’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
At a moment when the nation urgently needs a clearer picture of educational opportunity and outcomes, policymakers should be making it easier, not harder, to identify disparities, determine where students and communities need additional support, and target resources where they’re needed most — particularly when students struggling the most to read disproportionately attend schools with the least funding.
The 2025 PISA scores underscore the urgency of our nation’s literacy crisis. We must aspire for a future where all students, regardless of background, can become confident, engaged readers and have the skills needed to access any pathway they choose.
Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages
