American Children’s Reading Skills Reach New Lows
The New York Times
With little post-pandemic recovery, experts wonder if screen time and school absence are among the causes.
In the latest release of federal test scores, educators had hoped to see widespread recovery from the learning loss incurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Instead, the results, from last year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress, tell a grim tale, especially in reading: The slide in achievement has only continued.
The percentage of eighth graders who have “below basic” reading skills according to NAEP was the largest it has been in the exam’s three-decade history — 33 percent. The percentage of fourth graders at “below basic” was the largest in 20 years, at 40 percent.
There was progress in math, but not enough to offset the losses of the pandemic.
Recent reading declines have cut across lines of race and class. And while students at the top end of the academic distribution are performing similarly to students prepandemic, the drops remain pronounced for struggling students, despite a robust, bipartisan movement in recent years to improve foundational literacy skills.
“Our lowest performing students are reading at historically low levels,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which gives the NAEP exam. “We need to stay focused in order to right this ship.”
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
Caroline Kennedy stepped out of the shadows and onto social media to assail her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on the eve of his Senate hearing.
Lorne Michaels reportedly dislikes when “Saturday Night Live” cast members break character. But over 50 seasons, it’s become one of the show’s signature moves — one that usually delights the audience.
Gov. Josh Green battled a measles outbreak that killed 83 people, mostly children. President Trump wants Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a vaccine skeptic, as his health policy chief.
The Trump administration sought to pause federal dollars to some grantees as it tries to uproot policies like diversity, equity and inclusion. Schools and universities worried important programs could be halted.
Jeal Sutherland, of Colonie, N.Y., hatched a deadly scheme with a convicted killer who was an F.B.I. informer, court documents say.
The former Trump adviser, who faces trial in March, said that he was singled out for his politics. He took aim at the district attorney in much the way the president has.
These parents believe in home-schooling and distrust food and drug companies. In Kennedy, they see “a bull in the china shop.”
The city laid out a series of proposals to reduce cancer deaths by 20 percent, and deaths from heart- and diabetes-related ailments by 5 percent, over the next five years.
In a special session on Monday, leaders seemed to be declaring their independence from a governor who has wielded so much power that legislative sessions have become largely predictable rubber stamps.
There were no Situation Room meetings and no quiet calls to de-escalate a dispute with an ally. Just threats, counterthreats, surrender and an indication of the president’s approach to Greenland and Panama.
A special session that began on Monday pairs disaster aid with two priorities for both the president and Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee: tougher immigration laws and school vouchers.
Thomas J. Mascia scattered casings around and then shot himself in the leg in a bid for attention, prosecutors said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, an unabashed fan of the Buffalo Bills, was perhaps never more popular than on Sunday in downtown Albany.
The 14th Amendment overturned the 1857 decision that denied citizenship to Black people. Scholars say President Trump’s proposal betrays that history.
The bishop asked President Trump publicly to “have mercy,” electrifying some liberal churchgoers in an era dominated by conservative versions of Christianity.
Even more than in his first term, President Trump has mounted a fundamental challenge to the norms and expectations of what a president can and should do.
The decision by federal prosecutors came at a time when President Trump was rolling back protections for transgender people.
Many commuters continue to oppose the new tolling program in New York City even as some drivers and bus riders are spending less time trapped in traffic.