ANNA SHAPIRO, REBECCA SUTHERLAND, JULIA H. KAUFMAN
What’s Missing from
Teachers’ Toolkits to
Support Student Reading
in Grades 3–8
Findings from the RAND American
Teacher Panel
M
any children beyond early elementary school have difficulty reading grade-appropriate
texts. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading Assessment
results from 2022 indicated that only 33 percent of 4th grade students and 31 percent
of 8th grade students scored at or above NAEP Proficient level (e.g., “solid academic
performance and competency over
challenging subject matter”; Nation’s
Report Card, 2022a, Nation’s Report
Card, 2022b). The coronavirus dis-
ease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has
exacerbated low proficiency rates
nationwide, given the many months
of missed learning that nearly all stu-
dents experienced; NAEP long-term
trend assessments noted that 13-year-
olds’ average reading scores were sig-
nificantly lower in 2023 than in 2020
(Walton, 2023), and reading growth
is particularly low among groups that
have lower average reading achieve-
ment (Lewis and Kuhfeld, 2023).
KEY FINDINGS
■ According to a nationally representative sample of U.S. grade 3–8
teachers across all subjects, students spend more than half of
their class time reading and writing.
■ These grade 3–8 teachers estimate that 44 percent of their stu-
dents always or nearly always experience difficulty reading the
written content within their instructional materials.
■ Among teachers in grades 3–8, 40 percent hold misconceptions
about how students develop word reading skills, and nearly half
of teachers in these grades report that their primary source of
knowledge about reading instruction comes from their personal
experiences in the classroom.
■ Almost three-quarters of teachers in grades 3–8 say that they
need access to more resources to identify and support students
with reading difficulties.
Research Report
