Introduction

If you’re reading this, you possess a complex set of reading skills that help you make your way in the world, decoding and constructing meaning from words on pages, screens, and signs.

Reading is so automatic that it’s easy for strong readers to take this ability for granted. But being able to read unlocks knowledge and opportunities, helps you effectively understand and communicate complex ideas, and distinguish fact from fiction. It’s an essential prerequisite for succeeding in school, accessing strong job opportunities, and becoming an engaged and informed citizen, and as such, literacy is a fundamental civil right.

Yet, millions of children are systemically denied the right to read:  Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), our “Nation’s Report Card,” consistently shows that too many students in the U.S. are below grade level in reading, and students from underserved backgrounds disproportionately so.

The most recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) showed that only 30% of fourth grade students are proficient in reading, and just 16% of Black students, 20% of Latino students, 8% of English learners, 10% of students with disabilities, and 19% of economically disadvantaged students can read proficiently by the fourth grade. Students are less engaged, too: just 14% of eighth graders reported reading for fun almost every day in 2023, a lower percentage than in all previous NAEP assessment years.

This is unacceptable. It’s also wholly avoidable when schools deliver high-quality reading instruction in a positive, inviting environment and students have access to learning materials that reflect their identities. Sadly, this is not the norm, but it should be. Every student should be taught to read using rigorous, diverse materials and evidence-based instructional practices and supports.

With that in mind, EdTrust has created various publications outlining how states can build on recent reforms to ensure more equitable reading opportunities and outcomes for all students.

6 Principles to Guide State Policy

While state and local leaders have become more engaged in this policy area over the past several years, more must be done to advance policies and practices that ensure that students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities are afforded the same opportunities and resources as their peers to become skillful, engaged readers. At the same time, bad actors at the federal and state levels are actively attacking civil rights, banning books and censoring authentic stories, and undercutting access to high-quality education, to the detriment of students’ literacy development.

Advocates must demand evidence-based, comprehensive, and sustainable changes to ensure that every student learns to read. In this report, EdTrust outlines six principles to guide advocates as they work toward this goal.

6 Principles to Advance Equity in State Literacy Policy (PDF Download)

• Align Instruction and Curricula With Evidence-Based Practice: State policies must ensure that all students learn to read in classrooms that use evidence-based reading instruction, curricula, assessments, and supports.
• Connect Materials to Students’ Identities and Interests: State policies must encourage schools to use instructional materials and assessments that reflect all students’ identities and interests.
• Provide Equitable, Differentiated Supports: State policies play a crucial role in ensuring that schools implement an effective and equitable system of assessments and interventions to support every student in learning to read. 
• Begin at Birth: State policy must ensure that children are prepared to become strong readers from their earliest years.
• Empower Educators: State policy must support educators in becoming experts in teaching reading through evidence-based instruction.
• Authentically Partner With Families: State policy can help families and caregivers support their child’s reading skills while providing an accurate understanding of their child’s current reading level, strengths, and areas for growth.

Our hope is that by focusing on these principles, we can end the literacy crisis and ensure that every student has access to the high-quality materials and reading instruction they need to become skilled, engaged readers.

Policy Recommendations

Implementing comprehensive policy to support stronger and more equitable reading outcomes involves several policy levers. The following recommendations and their associated equity considerations are intended to help advocates and state policymakers:

• Evaluate existing state policies for opportunities to strengthen them
• Consider how policies can more effectively support students of color and students from low-income backgrounds

8 Recommendations & Equity Considerations for Advocates (PDF Download)

Take Action in Your Community

Local advocates are indispensable in addressing our nation’s literacy crisis and ensuring that all students can become skillful and engaged readers.

This Literacy Actions Guide is designed for families, educators, community leaders, and advocates who believe that every child deserves access to high-quality, evidence-based reading instruction. Use this guide as an introduction to advocate for policy change and mobilize your local community.

10 Actions to Advocate for More Equitable Literacy Outcomes (PDF Download)

The Action Guide:

• Outlines 10 actions that advocates can take at the local and state levels to promote stronger, more equitable literacy outcomes. These actions include asking questions of system leaders, mobilizing personal networks, and speaking with elected state officials.
• Highlights examples of advocacy in action from across the country, sparking ideas for similar initiatives elsewhere.
• Encourages advocates to connect with a broader movement by joining campaigns and coalitions to amplify their efforts.

Advocacy can bridge research, data, and lived experiences to draw attention to inequities that disproportionately impact students from underserved backgrounds, advance evidence-based approaches, and compel decisionmakers to action

Policy Guide: Reading Interventions

All students deserve equitable opportunities to become skillful, engaged readers, which includes access to high-quality reading interventions for additional support. Advocates play a crucial role in ensuring that these reading interventions are of high quality and that access to them is equitable for all students and schools.

Reading Interventions Policy Guide (PDF Download)

This resource:

• Explains how improving access to and the quality of reading interventions advances equity
• Presents questions that advocates can ask school and district leaders about implementation, evaluation, and monitoring
• Highlights key data that advocates can use in their conversations with education leaders

Advocates can use this resource alongside the Alliance for Resource Equity (ARE) toolkit. For instance, the ARE Guidebooks can help district leaders and advocates improve access to high-quality reading interventions by considering factors such as staff time and capacity, scheduling, curriculum, and state and district policies, while the Advocating Across Government tool helps identify the target audience for advocacy efforts.

Blog Series

Early Literacy

Our nation’s literacy crisis is one of the major civil rights issues of our time. To protect the future of our students and our nation, we must address this crisis. EdTrust’s blog series on early literacy elevates powerful stories, data, research, and perspectives from partners, exploring how advocates can encourage education leaders at every level to adopt policies and practices that ensure every child learns to read and has access to diverse texts.

Blog Series: Early Literacy

Representation in Books

Representation matters. Diverse representation in grade-school books and curricula helps students better understand themselves and the world around them, while supporting strong, skillful reading competencies. Book bans and the whitewashing of history hinder students’ potential.

EdTrust’s blog series on “Representation in Books” emphasizes the need to recognize how multiple and intersecting identities are represented in grade schoolbooks. This series builds on the lessons from our report by highlighting a group of incredible authors, each sharing their experiences navigating identity and representation. Their insights help readers understand what is needed to advocate for their respective communities.

Blog Series: Representation in Books (Web)

Blog Series: Representation in Books (PDF Download)

Children bring all of themselves to their learning, and that learning should be as nuanced and complex as the human experience. That variety is valuable and benefits us all, not just in how we learn, but also in how we commune with one another, how we work and think together, and how we collectively nurture and shape a democratic, pluralistic society

Featured photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash