We’re Losing the Ability to Read

Something alarming is unfolding in American classrooms, and society as a whole. My mom didn’t believe me. Neither did my fiance. The issue is alarming enough, to be worthy of some attention.

College students can’t read.

Jessica Hooten Wilson, a professor of humanities at Pepperdine University, told Fortune that students are arriving unable to process basic written language: “It’s not even an inability to critically think. It’s an inability to read sentences.” ¹Writing for Slate, professor Adam Kotsko described the same pattern among even his strongest students—struggles with stamina, basic comprehension, and extracting meaning from a text. ²

The trend is only accelerating.

The Numbers

Nearly half of all Americans did not read a single book in 2025, and recreational reading among adults has plummeted by roughly 40% over the past two decades.³ The number of 13-year-olds who say they read for fun “almost every day” dropped from 35% in 1984 to just 14% in 2023, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.. ⁴

The adult picture is even grimmer. A Gallup analysis of U.S. Department of Education data found that approximately 130 million U.S. adults—54% of those aged 16 to 74—read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level. ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ The percentage of adults scoring at the lowest literacy proficiency level jumped from 19% in 2017 to 28% in 2023.. ⁸

How the U.S. Compares Internationally

Let’s bring the US illiteracy rate into a global context. The most comprehensive international benchmark is the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), administered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) across 31 countries. In the most recent round, conducted in 2022–2023, U.S. adults aged 16 to 65 scored an average of 258 points in literacy—statistically indistinguishable from the OECD average of 260. The U.S. tied for 14th out of 31 participating countries, with 13 scoring higher. ⁹

The gap between the U.S. and top-performing nations is substantial. Finland led all countries with an average literacy score of 296—38 points above the U.S. and 36 points above the OECD average. Japan followed at 289, Sweden at 284, and Norway at 281.¹⁰ Among G7 nations specifically, the U.S. average (258) fell below Japan (288), the U.K. (271), Canada (270), and Germany (265), though it scored above France (252) and Italy (243). ¹¹

The distribution tells an even more pointed story. In the U.S., 28% of adults scored at Level 1 or below—the lowest proficiency tier, indicating difficulty with basic everyday reading tasks. In Finland, only 12% fell to that level. In Japan, just 10%. 10¹² At the other end, 35% of Finnish adults scored at Levels 4 and 5—the highest proficiency tiers—compared to roughly 12% across the OECD and a declining share in the U.S.10 NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr described a “dwindling middle” in the American skills distribution: “Over time, we’re seeing more Americans clustered at the bottom levels of proficiency.” 9

Perhaps the most telling comparison involves educational access and opportunities. U.S. adults with a high school diploma scored lower, on average, in all three PIAAC domains than adults in Japan who never finished high school. The same pattern held for Finnish adults without a high school credential, who outperformed American high school graduates in numeracy and problem solving.¹³

Wrong Direction

The trend line is moving in the wrong direction. U.S. adult literacy scores dropped 12 points between 2017 and 2023. Among the 26 OECD countries with comparable data across both periods, literacy declined in the U.S. and 18 other nations. Only three countries—Denmark, Finland, and Sweden—showed improvement. Finland is one of the few nations where adult literacy skills actually got better over the past decade, gaining 15 points since 2012.

Why the Decline?

Researchers at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education point out that literacy skills among American students peaked around the mid-2010s and have fallen significantly since, a slide that predates the pandemic.¹⁴ Several factors are converging, leading to the noticeable decline in literacy rates. And the rapid decline in literacy rates is starting to impact curricula from K–12 and onwards into university settings.

The shift from reading to scanning, has trained US students to learn from compressed summaries rather than in full text form. Years of standardized testing have trained students to extract information from texts rather than engage with them deeply. As one professor told Fortune, students have been “formed in a kind of scanning approach to reading”—functional for skimming articles but inadequate for dense or complex material.

Decades of training for the test and scanning has made for a very hospitable environment for using AI as a shortcut. AI is a great compressor of text and a master of text summary, so its a natural progression. University of Notre Dame professor Timothy O’Malley noted that students increasingly lean on AI-generated summaries instead of doing assigned reading, missing the deeper purpose of engaging with a text.

Adding to factors working against literacy, decades of grade inflation masks the problem. GPAs are rising even as standardized test scores and reading abilities decline, creating a false picture of college readiness. To boot, K-12 preparation is not making up for literacy shortfalls. Middle and high school teachers assign far fewer full books than they once did, favoring shorter excerpts optimized for test prep. The pandemic accelerated this trend, with online syllabi demanding even less sustained reading. ¹⁵

Literacy: Conceptual, Logical, Physical

The cognitive act of sustained reading is physical conditioning for the brain. Neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf’s research describes how deep reading develops internalized knowledge, analogical reasoning, perspective-taking, empathy, and the capacity for critical analysis and insight.¹⁶ These are the mental operations that allow us to embrace complexity, weigh competing claims, and resist manipulation. Without them, we become easier to mislead.

At the individual level, literacy determines economic trajectory. Adults with strong reading skills earn substantially more, face lower unemployment, and navigate healthcare, legal, and financial systems with greater confidence. At the societal level, the stakes compound. The Ljubljana Reading Manifesto, an internationally recognized research report, concluded that reading functions as a culture’s “central training technique for cognitive and social behavior—a prerequisite for a well-functioning democracy. ¹⁷

Democratic self-governance depends on citizens who can interpret policy, compare viewpoints, recognize bias, and make evidence-based decisions—all capacities cultivated through sustained engagement with complex text.¹⁸ When a population loses those capacities, misinformation fills the vacuum, polarization accelerates, and the shared knowledge-based understanding of what democratic discourse requires, begins to erode.

This American Life

Low literacy costs the U.S. economy an estimated $2.2 trillion annually, according to a study commissioned by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Adults with low literacy earn significantly less, face higher unemployment, and generate an estimated $238 billion in avoidable healthcare costs due to misunderstanding treatment regimens and preventive care.¹⁹

The crisis threatens civic life with equal force. As The Daily Texan put it: “Democracy depends on people who can read critically.” When reading declines, so does the capacity to evaluate information, recognize misinformation, and engage meaningfully in public discourse.

And the cycle feeds itself. Children raised by adults with low literacy are 72% more likely to have low reading levels themselves.

Literacy and the College-vs.-Trades Debate

Influential voices in technology and government have been questioning the value of a four-year college degree, and some of their points have merit. Elon Musk told an audience at the Satellite 2020 conference that “college is basically for fun and to prove that you can do your chores, but they’re not for learning,” adding that degree requirements at his companies are “absurd.”²⁰ In 2024, he argued that “the value of a college education is somewhat overrated” and that “too many people spend four years, rack up significant debt, and often don’t come away with useful skills.”²¹

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palintir, has made a similar case for over a decade—calling higher education a “bubble,” funding $100,000 fellowships for students willing to drop out, and arguing that “one of the downsides of too much education is that you get the most brainwashed.”²² ²³ Naturally, this perspective has gained policy traction.

The current administration proposed restructuring federal financial aid to prioritize vocational and technical training over traditional four-year programs.²⁴ An executive order now directs a national strategy on career and technical education, and proposals have been floated to redirect university research grants toward trade schools.²⁵ Education Secretary Linda McMahon framed the shift at her confirmation hearing: “Our vocational and skilled-based training is not a default education; it can be front and center.”²⁶

There’s no doubt that vocational education is valuable, and the skilled trades shortage is real. But the college-vs.-trades conversation assumes a baseline of literacy that no longer exists for a majority of American adults. Trade careers are cognitively demanding. Electricians must read and interpret blueprints, wiring diagrams, the National Electrical Code, and local building codes. Apprenticeship programs require aptitude tests covering math and reading comprehension.²⁷ The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that electricians “read blueprints, which include technical diagrams of electrical systems.”²⁸ Plumbers, HVAC technicians, and carpenters face similar demands. These professions require sustained reading comprehension and critical thinking skills that are currently in steep decline.

Underneath the college-vs.-trades debate, there’s a basic assumption neither side acknowledges. No matter if a young person pursues a four-year degree or a trade apprenticeship, they need to be able to read, comprehend, and reason at a functional adult level. When 54% of American adults read below a sixth-grade level, the debate over which kind of post-secondary education to pursue is premature. You cannot learn a trade—or anything else—if you cannot read the manual.

We’ve Tried This Before

The United States has a long, fitful history of trying to fix literacy through federal programs. The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 first brought federal funding to adult basic education as part of the War on Poverty. The Adult Education Act of 1966 moved those programs under the Department of Education. Head Start, created in 1964 for low-income families, tried to catch children before they fell behind.²⁹

The National Literacy Act of 1991 established the first nationwide effort to set measurable literacy goals and create a National Reporting System to track progress. The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 attempted to coordinate adult education with job training. No Child Left Behind in 2002 introduced Reading First grants for K–3 evidence-based reading instruction.³⁰ Each generation of legislation has acknowledged the problem, allocated money, and eventually been succeeded by the next attempt.

Today, federal adult education programming reaches fewer than 10% of the adults who could benefit from literacy services.³¹

The landscape of current programs is fragmented. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which replaced the Workforce Investment Act in 2014, funds state-administered adult education and literacy programs, largely through community colleges and local education agencies. Organizations like ProLiteracy and its network of community-based tutoring programs serve hundreds of thousands of adult learners annually.

The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy funds research and advocacy. The Library of Congress houses a Center for the Book that promotes reading nationwide. Across the country, libraries, nonprofits, and volunteer organizations run reading programs with varying levels of funding and reach. These efforts are well-intentioned and often effective at the individual level, but they remain wildly undersized relative to the scope of the problem.

And then there’s Dolly Parton , who might be doing more for American literacy than the entire federal government—and she’s doing it by mail. In 1995, Parton launched the Imagination Library through her Dollywood Foundation, inspired by her father, who never learned to read or write. The concept is almost absurdly simple: mail one free, age-appropriate book per month to every enrolled child from birth to age five. No income requirements, no applications to a grants office, no congressional reauthorization hearings. Just books showing up in the mailbox with a kid’s name on them.³²

Dolly’s program started in Sevier County, Tennessee, with an initial mailing of 1,760 books. Thirty years later, it has gifted over 300 million books across five countries and currently mails 3.4 million books every month—roughly one every 0.86 seconds. One in seven American children under five now receives a monthly book from Dolly Parton.³³ ³⁴

In a country where the federal literacy infrastructure is perpetually underfunded and chronically restructured every few legislative cycles, a country music icon has shown us how to grow literacy through her early childhood book-gifting program. And the research backs it up. The largest-ever study on shared book reading, published in early 2026 and drawing on data from more than 86,000 caregivers across five countries, found that children enrolled in the Imagination Library were 11 times more likely to be interested in books, 15 times more likely to join in during shared reading, and 13 times more likely to be read to four or more days per week compared to non-participants.³⁵

Over 90% of parents of children participating in Dolly’s program report the program helps prepare their children for kindergarten.³⁶

And I know this type of literacy program works. My very first job out of college was as an AmeriCorps VISTA school coordinator for a literacy program called SMART–Start Making A Reader Today. Across two Portland, Oregon public elementary schools, I built and ran literacy programs that solicited and supported volunteers, who would come into the schools and read to children. Each child was gifted two books a month, to grow their own library of books. And the kids loved the program, mostly because it taught the joys of reading and books.

Bring Literacy Back

As the Barbara Bush Foundation’s Andrew Roberts said: “We call it a silent crisis because it’s not talked about that much.” 19 Professor Kotsko reframed the literacy crisis: “We are not complaining about our students. We are complaining about what has been taken from them.” 2

We know how to fix the literacy crisis. Evidence-based reading instruction, sustained investment in early literacy, adult education programs, and a cultural shift that values deep reading over digital skimming. While society hurdles towards a new AI-centered technological future, we are losing sight of the humans. The current trajectory deprioritizes college, strips K–12 of rigorous curricula and defunds cultural institutions such as libraries. And the US adult illiteracy rate continues to grow, as programming, funding and curricula continues to erode.

130 million adults are functionally illiterate. More than half the country. This is everyone’s crisis.

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Footnotes

1. Caminiti, S. “Gen Z are arriving to college unable to even read a sentence—professors warn it could lead to a generation of anxious and lonely graduates.” Fortune, January 9, 2026. https://fortune.com/2026/01/09/gen-z-college-students-struggling-to-read-professors-forced-to-rethink-standards-warn-of-anxiety-lack-of-workplace-prepardness/

2. Pryor, E. “College Professors Say Student Literacy Is Plummeting.” WeAreTeachers, February 20, 2024. https://www.weareteachers.com/student-literacy-in-college/

3. “Consequences of the literacy crisis.” The Daily Texan, December 1, 2025. https://thedailytexan.com/2025/12/01/consequences-of-the-literacy-crisis/

4. Meekins, S. “Reading into an emerging issue: Declining literacy rates among college students.” The GH Falcon, November 6, 2024. https://ghfalcon.com/16852/showcase/reading-into-an-emerging-issue-declining-literacy-rates-among-college-students/

5. Fernandez, S. “Reading the numbers: 130 million American adults have low literacy skills.” APM Research Lab, March 12, 2020 (updated November 2024). https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy

6. Literacy Gap Map.” Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, https://map.barbarabush.org/

7. Palma, B. “Do More Than Half of Americans Read Below 6th-Grade Level?” Snopes, August 2, 2022 (updated May 2025). https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/08/02/us-literacy-rate/

8. “49 Adult Literacy Statistics and Facts for 2026.” National University, January 5, 2026. https://www.nu.edu/blog/49-adult-literacy-statistics-and-facts/

9. “U.S. Adults Score on Par With International Average in Literacy Skills, Below International Average in Numeracy and Problem-Solving Skills in Survey of Adult Skills.” Institute of Education Sciences (IES), National Center for Education Statistics, December 10, 2024. https://ies.ed.gov/learn/press-release/u-s-adults-score-par-international-average-literacy-skills-below-international-average-numeracy-and

10. “Finland a leading country in PIAAC adult population survey.” Finnish Government / Ministry of Education and Culture, December 10, 2024. Finland scored 296 in literacy (36 points above the OECD average), with 35% of adults at Levels 4–5 proficiency. https://valtioneuvosto.fi/en/-/1410845/finland-a-leading-country-in-piaac-adult-population-survey

11. Engberg, M. “How is the US Doing Compared to its International Peers? OECD’s Annual Education at a Glance Reports New Findings.” EdEvaluator, November 3, 2025. Among G7 nations, the U.S. literacy average (258) trailed Japan (288), U.K. (271), Canada (270), and Germany (265). Literacy declined in the U.S. and 18 other OECD countries between 2012 and 2023; only Denmark, Finland, and Sweden improved. https://edevaluator.org/how-is-the-us-doing-compared-to-its-international-peers-oecds-annual-education-at-a-glance-reports-new-findings/

12. “Survey of Adult Skills 2023: United States.” OECD, December 10, 2024. In the U.S., 28% of adults scored at Level 1 or below in literacy (OECD average: 26%). https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/survey-of-adults-skills-2023-country-notes_ab4f6b8c-en/united-states_427d6aac-en.html

13. “PIAAC U.S. Performance in International Context.” National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), U.S. adults with a high school diploma scored lower in all three domains than Japanese adults without a high school education. https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/international_context.asp

14. “What’s driving decline in U.S. literacy rates?” Harvard Gazette, September 24, 2025. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/09/whats-driving-decline-in-u-s-literacy-rates/

15. “College Student Literacy is Down, but My Determination is Up.” Adolescent.net, January 16, 2025 (referencing Rose Horowitch, “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books,” The Atlantic, 2024). https://www.adolescent.net/a/college-student-literacy-is-down-but-my-determination-is-up

16. Wolf, M., as cited in “Why is Deep Reading Important?” Steel Snowflake, September 2, 2025. Wolf’s research on the neuroscience of reading is detailed in Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (Harper, 2018). https://www.steelsnowflake.org/post/deep-reading

17. The Ljubljana Reading Manifesto as cited in “Democracy is built on reading skills.” World Expression Forum (WEXFO), May 27, 2024. https://wexfo.no/2024/05/27/democracy-is-built-on-reading-skills/

18. “Literacy and Democracy: Why Reading and Writing Matter More Than Ever.” Think Academy US, October 27, 2025 (referencing UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report 2023). https://www.thethinkacademy.com/blog/edubriefs-literacy-and-democracy-why-reading-and-writing-matter-more-than-ever/

19. “More than half of American adults read below a sixth-grade level.” InvestigateTV, December 1, 2025 (citing a 2020 Gallup/Barbara Bush Foundation economic impact study). https://www.investigatetv.com/2025/12/01/more-than-half-american-adults-read-below-sixth-grade-level/

20. Musk, E., as quoted in Clifford, C. “Elon Musk says college is ‘for fun’ and not for learning, echoing PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.” CNBC, March 9, 2020. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/09/elon-musk-says-college-is-for-fun-not-for-learning-echoing-thiel.html

21. Musk, E., as quoted in “Tesla CEO Elon Musk questions college education system, says practical skills more valuable than college degrees.” Education Post, October 21, 2024. https://educationpost.in/news/business/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-questions-college-education-system-says-practical-skills-more-valuable-than-college-degrees

22. Thiel, P., as cited in Packer, S. “Peter Thiel: We’re in a Bubble and It’s Not the Internet. It’s Higher Education.” TechCrunch, April 10, 2011. https://techcrunch.com/2011/04/10/peter-thiel-were-in-a-bubble-and-its-not-the-internet-its-higher-education/

23. Thiel, P., as quoted in Francolla, G. “Peter Thiel says higher education has ‘brainwashed’ Silicon Valley.” CNBC, September 13, 2018. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/13/peter-thiel-too-much-education-leads-to-the-most-brainwashed-people.html

24. “New Trump Administration Impact On Higher Education.” Manaferra, January 8, 2025. https://www.manaferra.com/trump-administration-impact-on-higher-ed/

25. Olson, A. “Trade schools may benefit from shifting federal higher education priorities.” CNBC, May 29, 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/29/trump-harvard-battle-trade-schools-may-be-an-unlikely-winner.html

26. McMahon, L., as quoted in “Trump’s trade school proposals and the Ivy League.” NBC News, May 29, 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-harvard-trade-schools-ivy-league-rcna208596

27. “Electrician Prerequisites: What You Need to Start Your Training.” Centura College, October 3, 2025. Many apprenticeship programs require aptitude tests covering math and reading comprehension. https://www.centuracollege.edu/blogs/trades-industry/electrician-prerequisites-training/

28. “Electricians: Occupational Outlook Handbook.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, updated 2024. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/electricians.htm

29. Sticht, T. “The Rise of the Adult Education and Literacy System in the United States: 1600–2000.” National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL). The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 provided the first federal laws and funding for adult basic education. https://www.ncsall.net/index.html@id=576.html

30. “An American Heritage: Federal Adult Education, A Legislative History 1964–2013.” U.S. Department of Education, LINCS, The National Literacy Act (1991) provided the first nationwide efforts to increase literacy levels and institute a National Reporting System. https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/Adult_Ed_History_Report.pdf

31. “US Adults Need Stronger Skills to Thrive in a Changing World.” ProLiteracy, December 13, 2024. Programs are serving less than 10% of adults who could benefit from literacy services. https://www.proliteracy.org/news/us-adults-need-stronger-skills-to-thrive-in-a-changing-world/

32. “About Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.” Imagination Library / The Dollywood Foundation. Founded in 1995 in Sevier County, Tennessee; first mailing of 1,760 books. https://imaginationlibrary.com/about-us/

33. “Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Unwraps the Gift of Reading.” DollyParton.com, December 2025. The program surpassed 300 million books gifted worldwide in 2025 and now delivers 3.4 million books per month. https://dollyparton.com/imagination_library/dolly-partons-imagination-library-unwraps-the-gift-of-reading

34. “Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Year in Review.” Imagination Library / The Dollywood Foundation, 2024. In 2024, the program gifted 36,714,624 books—a 24.4% increase over 2023, equating to roughly one book mailed every 0.86 seconds. As of 2024, 1 in 7 children under age 5 in the U.S. receives a monthly book. https://imaginationlibrary.com/news-resources/year-in-review/

35. “Largest-Ever Shared Book Reading Study Finds Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Dramatically Improves Early Literacy for Children in Five Countries.” PR Newswire / Morningstar, February 3, 2026. Study by Dr. Claire Galea (Macquarie University / United Way Australia) analyzed data from 86,000+ caregivers across five countries. https://www.morningstar.com/news/pr-newswire/20260203cl76610/largest-ever-shared-book-reading-study-finds-dolly-partons-imagination-library-dramatically-improves-early-literacy-for-children-in-five-countries

36. “Families Say Imagination Library Helps Children Prepare for Kindergarten.” The Literacy Cooperative, February 2, 2026. Based on 1,859 survey responses, over 90% of parents say the program helps prepare their child for kindergarten; 86% report children ask to be read to more frequently. https://literacycooperative.org/2026dpilreport/

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about me. I’m an information architect, semantic strategist, and lifelong student of systems, meaning, and human understanding. For over 25 years, I’ve worked at the intersection of knowledge frameworks and digital infrastructure—helping both large organizations and cultural institutions build information systems that support clarity, interoperability, and long-term value.

I’ve designed semantic information and knowledge architectures across a wide range of industries and institutions, from enterprise tech to public service to the arts. I’ve held roles at Overstock.com, Pluralsight, GDIT, Amazon, System1, Battelle, the Oregon Health Authority, and the Department of Justice and most recently, Adobe. I built an NGO infrastructure for Shock the System, which I continue to maintain and scale.

Throughout the years, I’ve worked a bunch at GLAM organizations (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums), including the Smithsonian Institution, The Shoah Foundation for Visual History, Twinka Thiebaud and the Art of the Pose, Nritya Mandala Mahavihara, the Shogren Museum, and the Oregon College of Art and Craft.

And through it all, I am a librarian.