US Reading scores take a dive | Drudge Retort

Tuesday, September 08, 2026

US Reading scores take a dive

Alarming new data shows U.S. students continue to fall behind their peers in reading as the country's achievement gap widens, according to results from the latest globally recognized international exam. The 2025 Program for International Assessment, or PISA, found that 15-year-old U.S. students' reading scores fell 14 points from the last time the test was administered, in 2022. The assessment also found that the achievement gap among U.S. readers in the 90th percentile and the 10th percentile was the largest among any other country included in the report.

Posted by oneironaut at 05:33 PM | 15 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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Pretty incredible given how much the US spends per student. Post COVID issue? Boomers can't teach? Just make $$$$ off the kids...

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Another view ...

Teen reading slumps to worst this century due to surge in screen time
www.reuters.com

...Teenagers more accustomed to smartphones than Shakespeare are reading at the worst levels seen this century, driving a broader decline in education, a global student assessment found.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's 2025 test of 760,000 15-year-olds across 91 countries showed reading, mathematics and science scores at their lowest levels since data began to be collected in 2000. ...

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-09-08 05:46 PM | Reply

Posted by oneironaut

You're a ------- retarded idiot.

#2 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-09-08 06:18 PM | Reply

#1 | POSTED BY LAMPLIGHTER

Doesn't explain why the US dropped so far, as screen time hasn't decreased or increased.

Worldwide, the average person spends a total of 6 hours and 37 minutes looking at a screen each day (for internet-connected activities). The average American spends 7 hours looking at a screen each day. According to data from DataReportal, the average American spends 6 hours and 59 minutes looking at a screen every day.
www.crossrivertherapy.com

Are teenagers growing dimmer?

Every three years the oecd, a club mostly of rich countries, releases the results of international school tests sat by 15-year-olds all across the world. There were reasons to hope that the latest data, published on September 8th, would bring positive news. Marks in mathematics, reading and science had collapsed in the previous round of testing, which was carried out just after the pandemic.
www.economist.com

Screen time isn't the issue, you'd be a fool to propaganda to think its just screen time. The point of saying "screen time" is to put fear in people about computers, phones and its utility.

It's what they are doing with their screen time, over time they are doing less and less structured thinking.
A Short video, notifications, algorithmic feeds, constant task-switching, reduced long-form reading, less boredom, less unstructured thought.

It doesn't have to be this way its not screen time, but the apps they use.

#3 | Posted by oneironaut at 2026-09-08 06:39 PM | Reply

"A Short video, notifications, algorithmic feeds, constant task-switching, reduced long-form reading, less boredom, less unstructured thought."

Excellent summation, and excellent point.

#4 | Posted by Danforth at 2026-09-08 06:48 PM | Reply

The better the edumacation, the more a person votes Dem.

Republicans, well aware of that fact, deliberately do what they can to limit education.

#5 | Posted by Corky at 2026-09-08 07:22 PM | Reply

Thank God my kids developed solid reading habits very young and attended private school.

#6 | Posted by eberly at 2026-09-08 08:18 PM | Reply

The South is dragging down the averages according to the data.

You know, the states that spend the lowest per student and spend that money on the largest football stadiums.

#7 | Posted by Sycophant at 2026-09-08 08:59 PM | Reply

T-he South is dragging down the averages according to the data.

I'm sure that's true but I couldn't find that in the article nor the embedded results link.

and yes...the worst performers drag down the average.

That's how all averages work........you understand that, right?

#8 | Posted by eberly at 2026-09-08 09:13 PM | Reply

because we can point to all groups that drag down the average

inner cities
minorities
public schools

#9 | Posted by eberly at 2026-09-08 09:18 PM | Reply

" we can point to all groups that drag down the average
inner cities
minorities
public schools"

You're right. But all states have those groups.

Red states still rate worst.

#10 | Posted by Danforth at 2026-09-08 09:27 PM | Reply

It's not the end of the world (well, it is for the underperformers) that we have below average performers.

All the underperformers deserve attention to improve their performance.

And that's been the goal of some...but unfortunately folks in those communities don't give a shit.

Syco is right.......school districts approve funding for expensive football stadiums and programs while their tests scores get worse and worse.

the underperformers aren't hiding. They stand out quite obviously.

They just don't give a crap

#11 | Posted by eberly at 2026-09-08 09:53 PM | Reply

Um, unless kids are watching and not reading while on their devices, what is the reading problem?

Perhaps the topic is wrong.

Is it kids can't read or is it the kids can't answer questions about what they read?

If they can't read, media must be a watching tool, not reading tool.

If they can read,then we need to see the tests and determine the real issue: comprehension?

Honestly, I hated multiple choice tests on reading comprehension. I could explain everything I read, but questions sometimes were more confusing.

I'd rather have a teacher ask the question,I would answer or ask to clarify their question, and give an answer.

Those multiple choices sometimes were hooked on a specific answer yet multiple choices were just as correct as the next.

#12 | Posted by Petrous at 2026-09-09 07:51 AM | Reply

When I was in high school, it was a rare thing to find anyone who loved to read.

Oh, they existed. And ridiculed. Unmercifully.

In MAGA cutlure at least, you have to be a very brave boy or girl to obviously like reading.

So, no. I'm not surprised at the ascendance of MAGA that reading scores take a nose dive.

It's a cultural thing.

#13 | Posted by Zed at 2026-09-09 08:30 AM | Reply

These scores started dropping as soon as we moved away from phonics to the now mostly debunked Whole Language system where kids are taught to guess words based on context rather than learning how to sound them out. There is a lot more to it than that, but that is the 100,000ft view. Of course if you follow the money on how the Whole Language fad started it was all about kick backs.

Trump is an idiot, but his push at getting rid of the dept. of education, and shipping the funding directly to the states to determine how it's spent might be the best way of pushing back on the forced implementation of things like Whole Language since a central entity can't be bought and then force wholesale adoption at the gunpoint of withheld funding.

#14 | Posted by kwrx25 at 2026-09-09 11:24 AM | Reply

This is an interesting take.

25 Most Illiterate States in America
www.insidermonkey.com

#15 | Posted by lfthndthrds at 2026-09-09 12:49 PM | Reply

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