Who Are the Struggling Readers and How Can They Be Helped?

Key points

Some sociodemographic groups of students are more likely to struggle in reading during elementary school.

To what extent these sociodemographic differences occur by kindergarten and then persist has been unclear.

Students of color and English learners are more likely to struggle in reading over time.

Factors modifiable to early economic and educational policies explain these sociodemographic differences.

U.S. elementary school students have been displaying declining reading achievement, particularly among those who are struggling. For example, the average scores among 4th-grade students in the lowest 10th percentile declined by 10 points from 2020 to 2022. This was five times the decline of students in the highest 90th percentile. The sociodemographic groups who are espec