American students are struggling to read. The latest data by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) found that 12th grade American students are performing at the lowest they’ve been since 1992. This finding by the Nations Report Card details the growing gap between the highest and lowest achieving students.
The NCES data was broken down by Marty West, academic dean and a professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He serves as vice chair of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the Nation’s Report Card. West told the “Harvard Thinking” podcast in September 2025 that “American students’ literacy skills peaked in roughly the middle of the last decade and have fallen significantly since that time, and so… it’s really that decline in literacy skills that is drawing concern.”
Amira Walker, a sophomore English major at USF, told the Foghorn that she felt the declining literacy skills of American students was something that she’d personally observed here at school. Walker said, “Oftentimes when we do have longer readings or even more, so difficult readings, when it’s time to discuss, people do feel the need to say, ‘Oh, well, I did find it hard to read,’ or ‘I felt like I didn’t really understand what I was reading…’ I think it’s a little bit of students not being able to comprehend, but also students not wanting to read as much.”
This sentiment was echoed by Professor Kirsten Hilbert, an adjunct professor for the department of language and rhetoric at USF, who said, “Our society is increasingly asking us to consume more and more information, faster and faster… this in turn makes it harder to engage in deep reading… [or] have time to question and connect content.”
The overwhelming amount of information students are faced with due to the prevalence of technology was cited as a potential reason students are shying away from their readings. “It’s easier for us to not have to read the original source material and still be able to engage in class discussions or do the assignments and things like that,” Walker said. “So I feel like there’s not a lot of incentives for students to complete the work as they should.”
Another interesting figure that potentially points to the current standing of students’ literacy skills at USF is the declining attendance at Gleeson Library. Randy Souther, a reference librarian for USF’s Gleeson Library, spoke to the decline. “There is a downturn [in attendance] over the years, but it is complicated,” he said. Souther cites the COVID-19 pandemic and increased usage of online tools, including e-books, as part of this trend.
According to Gleeson’s gate figures, pre-pandemic the library received roughly 328,000 visitors a year and nearly five years later that number has dropped to around 213,000. Gleeson’s physical circulation rate is 3.21% while the online circulation rate is 27.35%. This means that Gleeson’s online database is rapidly outperforming the physical location as students are still utilizing library databases but increasingly prefer online tools and research methods.
However, the nationwide trend of declining literacy skills is not unique to USF. Of the University’s most recent admissions information, the 50th percentile of applicants who submitted test scores scored a median 28 on the ACT English Section (scored out of 36). This is markedly higher than the national average of 18, however it’s important to note that USF’s numbers may be inflated compared to the actual student body, as USF’s admissions process is test optional.
Sophomore communications major Jacie Talbot cited the potential for students to struggle with their reading lies in the materials being assigned. She discussed the difficulty of completing readings for subjects like history, when students are assigned primary sources with difficult and outdated language. “I think if they were assigned an old text that was maybe harder to read and understand…students may be more reluctant to understand it…because it is harder work. It is something harder to do than not,” she said. “As students, we have so much to do all the time. Why would we want to do something more that could have maybe been transcribed into an easier article that was faster to read but still has the same quality?”
Walker also said the observed trend may simply arise because “some students truly just aren’t interested, even though they should be. But you know, I feel like it’s very unrealistic to expect 17-year-olds to take charge of their learning.” She speculated that in face of the national trends, schools like USF may soon need to change their coursework. She said, “[with] higher education, the entire point is to hone all of our skills. So you kind of do have to meet students where they’re at, and kind of just hope for the best and hope that we get better at what’s expected of us. I don’t think they should completely throw everything out of the window, but maybe more prerequisite classes and things like that.”
