Losing the battle, and the war
Fewer 13-year-olds are unwinding at the end of the day with a good novel, as only 14% reportedly say they "read for fun," according to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The survey runs alongside the federal test commonly known as the nation's report card, which revealed that Math and English scores for 13-year-olds have fallen to their lowest level in decades — even underperforming the 2020 results, when education was disrupted heavily by the pandemic.
Focusing on reading specifically, the average scores have fallen from 260 to 256 compared to 2020 and now stand 7 points below the 2012 average score of 263.
The great escape
It's widely believed that reading for pleasure correlates with improved test performance, and the latest data does little to dispel that notion, as students who reported reading for fun almost every day scored on average 275, surpassing those who read less frequently in their spare time.
It's hard not to jump to the conclusion that the rise of screens and the internet has contributed to the slow demise of "reading for fun", with instant gratification the norm for so many of us. Perhaps most concerning is the 31% of students who reported "never or hardly ever" reading, up from just 9% in 1999.
