An insight into how colleges pretend students still know how to read

In spring 2019, the Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report revealed that children from families earning less than $35,000 a year had, on average, about 73 books at home, compared with 125 in households earning over $100,000, nearly twice as many.

Across the broader culture, too, reading for pleasure has been declining dramatically: a 2025 study published in iScience found that the share of Americans who read for enjoyment on a given day dropped from 28% in 2003 to just 16% in 2023, a drop of over 40% in two decades.

Now imagine those cultural and home‑literacy trends colliding with college classrooms where faculty say they value pre‑class preparation yet seldom see it realized, a gap documented in the 2018 Faculty Survey of Student Engagement faculty ratings. The result is a generation of students entering higher education with uneven preparation for the intellectual demands placed on them. This context sets the stage for a deeper look at how literacy, access, and expectations are misaligned in American education.

How Many Adults Struggle?

In 2024, the National Literacy Institute reported that 21% of U.S. adults are functionally illiterate, and 54% read at or below a sixth-grade level, with 20% at or below fifth-grade proficiency. These figures highlight a systemic literacy deficit, not a failure of individual effort.

Adults entering college or the workforce without mastery of long-form reading struggle with critical reasoning and written communication. The effects ripple through civic engagement, workplace performance, and social participation. Sociologist Frank Levy’s work on cognitive skills notes that such deficits limit both employment opportunities and the ability to engage with complex societal issues.

Longform reading, essential for comprehension and empathy, is becoming increasingly rare. Literacy challenges compound as students advance through the educational system without remediation. This creates a foundation of disadvantage that persists into higher education.

The Gap Between Expectations and Reality in College Classrooms

Faculty Survey of Student Engagement overwhelmingly emphasizes the importance of pre-class reading: nearly all respondents rated it “important” or “very important.”

Professors like Dr. Elizabeth Barkley, author of Student Engagement Techniques, describe classrooms in which students rely on summaries or group notes rather than fully engaging with assigned texts. The mismatch between expectation and student behavior shapes discussion, comprehension, and higher-order analysis. As reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, faculty often restructure classes around what students actually do rather than what they should do.

This gap reflects broader systemic pressures on students, from earlier schooling deficits to socioeconomic and work demands. It also affects peer learning, reducing opportunities for collaborative critical thinking. The perception-reality gap signals a structural problem in cultivating sustained reading habits in American colleges.

Remote Learning: Amplifying the Literacy Deficit

The shift to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing literacy gaps. A 2022 report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) documented measurable losses in reading comprehension for students in grades 4 and 8 during 2020–2021. The move online required unprecedented self-direction, which many younger students could not sustain, particularly in low-income households.

Brookings Institution researchers, including Tom Loveless, found that remote learning widened achievement gaps along both literacy and socioeconomic lines (Loveless, Brookings Papers). Students who fell behind in foundational reading now arrive at high school and college with gaps that compound each year.

Sight-Reading and the Limits of Decoding

Early reading instruction prioritizes phonics and sight-reading, as described in Jeanne Chall’s Learning to Read: The Great Debate (1983). While decoding is essential for word recognition, it does not automatically translate into comprehension of complex texts.

In American schools, this focus on measurable skills sometimes came at the expense of long-form analytical reading. Students may read fluently but lack the vocabulary or contextual understanding to engage with college-level texts. This creates challenges when entering disciplines that require critical reading of historical documents, scientific papers, or philosophical texts.

Sight-reading alone cannot bridge the gap to interpretive literacy. Without reinforcement through discussion and applied analysis, students’ reading remains superficial.

No Child Left Behind and the Incentives for Social Promotion

The No Child Left Behind Act emphasized standardized test performance, inadvertently incentivizing social promotion. A Government Accountability Office report highlighted cases where administrators pressured teachers to pass students who failed assessments to meet benchmarks.

Teachers reported that students were promoted without mastering foundational reading skills, particularly comprehension and critical thinking. Educational historian Diane Ravitch notes in Reign of Error that this focus on testable skills narrowed curriculum and limited exposure to analytical reading. By the time students reached high school or college, gaps in reading and reasoning were already entrenched.

High-stakes testing, coupled with rigid accountability, reinforced short-term measurable outcomes over long-term intellectual growth. This legacy continues to affect student preparedness today.

The Burden of Work and Economic Pressures

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly 40% of full-time college students and 75% of part-time students work, while 22.5% of high school students are employed during the school year.

Many students also contend with rising tuition, cost-of-living pressures, and student loan interest rates that compound financial stress. Work and economic stress reduce available time for deep reading and academic engagement. The mental and emotional load of juggling jobs, coursework, and personal obligations limits sustained focus.

Students under these pressures often skim readings or rely on secondary summaries rather than full texts. Literacy development becomes a luxury of time and resources rather than a standard expectation. Economic inequality thus intersects with educational outcomes, shaping who has the opportunity to engage meaningfully with reading.

Inequality in Access to Books and Knowledge

Access to reading materials is uneven across socioeconomic lines. Students from low-income households often have limited access to libraries, personal books, or digital platforms. The scarcity of accessible reading materials diminishes voluntary reading practice and exposure to diverse perspectives.

Reading not only builds comprehension but also fosters empathy and critical reasoning. Without access, students miss out on intellectual enrichment that prepares them for higher education and civic participation. Structural inequality, therefore, perpetuates literacy gaps. Access to books is not merely an educational concern; it is a marker of opportunity.

Mental Health, Stress, and Cognitive Load

High levels of stress and mental health challenges impede reading comprehension. Research by Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek et al., published in Educational Psychology Review, shows that cognitive load increases when students manage multiple stressors, including work, academic pressure, and financial insecurity.

Anxiety and depression diminish working memory and focus, reducing the capacity for deep engagement with texts. Students under stress may rely on surface-level reading strategies, like skimming or passive highlighting. Emotional and cognitive load are therefore tightly linked to reading outcomes.

Addressing literacy gaps requires attention to mental health alongside pedagogy. Reading comprehension is a cognitive skill deeply intertwined with psychological well-being.

From Reading Comprehension to Empathy and Social Skills

Sustained engagement with complex texts enhances social cognition and empathy. Students who struggle with reading miss opportunities to process nuanced social situations and emotional content. Literacy gaps thus affect not only academic performance but also interpersonal skills, collaboration, and civic understanding.

Professors often report that students with stronger reading habits contribute more meaningfully to classroom discussions. Reading is therefore not an isolated academic skill; it shapes social intelligence and the capacity to navigate human experience. Developing these skills requires both access to texts and sufficient time to engage with them deeply.

The Classroom Disconnect and the Future of Literacy

Colleges assume mastery that many students do not possess, perpetuating gaps in comprehension and analytical reasoning. Bridging this divide requires interventions like structured reading programs, discussion-based instruction, and equitable access to materials.

Experts such as Dr. James Lang, author ofSmall Teaching, advocate practical strategies to incrementally improve reading engagement. Without systemic attention, these literacy gaps will persist, limiting critical thinking, empathy, and career readiness. Addressing reading deficits is therefore both an academic and social imperative. Aligning expectations with the realities students face is essential for sustaining a literate, engaged citizenry in the United States.

Key takeaways

• Widespread literacy gaps: 21% of U.S. adults are functionally illiterate, and over half read below a sixth-grade level, creating foundational challenges for college readiness.
• Faculty-student disconnect: Professors overwhelmingly value pre-class reading (FSSE, 2018), yet few students consistently complete assignments, widening the gap between expectations and reality.
• Structural pressures hinder reading: Economic strain, part-time work, and mental health stress reduce students’ time and cognitive bandwidth for sustained engagement with texts (BLS, 2023; Scholastic, 2019).
• Inequitable access and opportunity: Children from low-income households have significantly fewer books at home, perpetuating long-term disparities in literacy and engagement (Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report, 2019).
• Reading shapes social and cognitive skills: Strong literacy supports critical thinking, empathy, and civic participation, while deficits affect classroom performance and broader societal engagement.

Disclosure line: This article was written with the assistance of AI and was subsequently reviewed, revised, and approved by our editorial team.

Like our content? Be sure to follow us