While college ambitions are on the rise, 12th-grade reading scores are falling, writes Annie Holmquist on Intellectual Takeout. Students aren’t reading challenging books in high school, she writes, citing an Urban Institute report.
Holmquist compares ninth-grade reading recommendations in a 1922 curriculum manual for Texas high schools to ninth-grade books recommended by San Antonio Independent School District for the 2015-16 school year.
She used a text analyzer to measure reading difficulty. “Reading material in today’s freshman literature classes measures around a 5th grade level,” writes Holmquist. “In 1922, however, freshman literature fare often measured at an 11th or 12th grade level.”
