America, we’ve got a middle school problem.
Although reading and math scores are up for 9-year-olds on the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ Long-Term Trend assessment, scores haven’t improved for 13-year-olds.
Results out June 10 show 13-year-olds are stuck reading at the same level as their counterparts 50 years ago. Worse, they’re working well below 2012 levels, a high point in achievement.
I’m a parent. I’ve also taught middle school and have worked with struggling readers in high school. Believe me, I know adolescence and the teen years can be rough, but we can’t afford to let students lose momentum during this important stage of development. Now is the time for policymakers and education leaders to work together to help middle schoolers reach their full potential.
I live and work in Mississippi, the state that has led the nation in raising standards and adopting evidence-based literacy policies and instructional practices in elementary school. Fourth graders in Mississippi had the highest growth in the nation in reading and math between 2013 and 2024.
Many states have followed suit, adopting early literacy laws grounded in the science of reading. More recently, some are also adopting policies that call for evidence-based practices and high-quality instructional materials in elementary math classrooms.
But there hasn’t been the same effort by state leaders across the country to support older students. I hope the Long-Term Trend results, which echo patterns we’ve seen on the main nation’s report card, spur broader action. A handful of states and districts are building momentum.
Virginia policymakers have been first out of the gate to tackle adolescent literacy in a meaningful way. Policies implemented there include screening older students for reading gaps, training teachers, tightening curriculum requirements, and deploying coaches to middle schools.
In Mississippi, policymakers recently passed legislation to implement similar practices in the middle grades and bolster math instruction by requiring the use of an algebra-readiness indicator in 5th grade to determine whether students are on track to studying algebra —a gateway to advanced coursework—in middle school.
The state’s work comes as a student survey accompanying the Long-Term Trend report revealed that just 23 percent of 13-year-olds say they’re taking algebra in middle school. That’s down from 34 percent who reported taking the course on the 2012 survey.
The survey findings also show students aren’t reading as much as they used to. Only 14 percent of 13-year-olds say they read for fun most days—a number that had been drifting downward for several decades before plummeting in 2020.
In education and policy circles, many point to the rise of smartphones and social media as possible contributors to these trends. Others have raised concerns about a gradual loosening of accountability measures and declining expectations for student performance—trends that some believe began more than a decade ago and accelerated during the pandemic.
But there are clear, practical steps school and district leaders can implement quickly to spark positive change.
1. Train teachers beyond 3rd grade.
Moving kids through middle and high school without the skills needed to succeed can be devastating for students. I’ve seen this firsthand. After teaching middle school, I next taught high school English, including a class of 9th graders who had been previously held back for poor academic performance. It was concerning that they had made it that far with such low reading skills. And, frankly, it was just as troubling to me that I didn’t know how to help them. I was great at teaching teens how to analyze a novel, but back then I didn’t have a clue how to teach them how to read it.
After teaching for several years, I became a literacy coach through a pilot program in my school district. The experience and training gave me the knowledge and confidence to help high school students close reading gaps and, just as importantly, to help other teachers do the same. The experience also taught me that it’s not too late. When educators have the right tools and support, students can make meaningful progress in middle school and beyond.
The leaders who control funding and resources should supply middle school English teachers more training and coaching in effective adolescent literacy instructional practices, rooted in the latest research. Even high school English teachers and those working in different subjects should have access to these trainings.
It is complex work to provide strong core instruction for all students while catching up struggling readers, particularly given the interdisciplinary nature of middle school content. After 3rd grade, students are still learning to read while reading to learn.
Academic vocabulary gets harder as kids progress through the grades, so middle school teachers, for example, need to know how to help students strengthen advanced decoding skills to not only decode words like “Pythagorean theorem” in math class and “mitochondria” in science class but also understand their meanings and appropriate contexts.
2. Look closely at bell schedules.
School and system leaders also should reexamine schedules in middle school and work creatively to allow time for students to get extra help when they’re behind—or enrichment when they’re ahead. Advisory periods can support this. In Pentucket, Mass., for example, middle school students who fell behind after the pandemic were given time during the day while others were in enrichment classes to participate in reading and math labs to work on closing skill gaps. Once the gaps were addressed, the students integrated back into the regular schedule.
3. Engage parents.
Finally, leaders at the school and district level must use a variety of ways to engage parents and treat parents as partners. The LTT survey reveals only 1 in 5 teens talks to someone in their home most days about what they’re learning in schools. We need deeper family engagement and more robust communication between schools and families for kids to thrive. Much like the early literacy policies adopted across the country that provide resources for parents to support reading at home, Mississippi’s adolescent literacy legislation requires schools to provide parents and caregivers with regular progress letters, reading intervention plans, notices when their children are behind, and literacy strategies that can be used through daily interactions with their children at home.
Our kids are in school for a relatively brief period of their lives. Education leaders must ensure that during that time, we’re doing everything we can to give them the best education possible. Although there’s still more work to be done, we’ve made important progress with young learners. Now we must bring that same sense of urgency, commitment, and investment to middle school.
