America’s Literacy Crisis

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The Literacy Crisis No One Wants To Talk About – Second Thought

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Citations and Further Reading:

Headline stats

https://www.dailymail.com/health/article-14342559/staggering-students-read-education-america.html

https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/2024-2025-literacy-statistics#:~:text=21%25%20of%20adults%20in%20the%20US%20are%20illiterate%20in%202022

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/learning/what-students-are-saying-about-the-decline-in-high-school-reading-skills.html#:~:text=a%20third%20of%20the%2012th%20graders%20who%20were%20tested%20did%20not%20have%20basic%20reading%20skills

NAEP results & explanations

https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/reading/2024/g4_8

https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/reading/2024/g12/

https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/achieve.aspx#:~:text=When%20reading%20literary%20texts%20such%20as%20fiction,support%20from%20one%20section%20of%20the%20text

https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/achieve.aspx#:~:text=Basic(243)-,When%20reading%20literary%20texts%20such%20as%20fiction%2C%20poetry%2C%20and%20literary%20nonfiction,incomplete%20understanding%20using%20general%20information%20from%20or%20reference%20to%20the%20text,-When%20reading%20informational

https://www.readingrockets.org/sites/default/files/2023-09/What-Does-Below-Basic-Mean-on-NAEP-Reading.pdf

https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/reading/2024/g4_8/?grade=8#:~:text=FIGURE,selected%20percentile%20scores

https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ndecore/xplore/NDE

https://www.idra.org/resource-center/what-2024-naep-scores-tell-us-about-student-progress/#:~:text=Students%20who%20are%20classified,top%2025%25%20of%20scores

PIAAC results & explanations

https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/2023/national_results.asp

https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/measure.asp

Low literacy consequences

https://hsrc.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/sphhs_policy_facpubs/172

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/us/reading-math-scores-declines-impact.html

https://allinliteracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ALL-IN-Employer-Survey-Report-12.5.23.pdf

Andreessen

https://x.com/rohanpaul_ai/status/2038690448483799250?s=20

https://www.businessinsider.com/marc-andreessen-zero-introspection-debate-2026-3

https://twitter.com/i/status/2033297822691516853

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lennyrachitsky_marc-andreessen-on-how-to-give-your-kids-activity-7423397220068081664-hf6d

Cognitive offloading

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260417-ai-chatbots-could-be-making-you-stupider

AI slop school video

https://youtu.be/Q-PrQ9JBjYc

Mississippi Miracle

https://youtu.be/ZvCT31BOLDM

https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?sfj=NP&chort=1&sub=RED&sj=&st=MN&year=2024R3

https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/09/harvard-reading-wars-literacy-education#:~:text=%2C%20Mississippi%20is%20one%20of%20three%20states%20where%20students%20are%20ahead%20in%20reading%20compared%20to%20where%20they%20were%20before%20the%20pandemic%2C%20according%20to%20the%20Harvard%20and%20Stanford%20analysis

https://www.theamericansaga.com/p/the-mississippi-miracle-how-americas

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2024.102598

https://theconversation.com/mississippis-education-miracle-a-model-for-global-literacy-reform-251895

Trump/Reagan

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg80x2rw58o

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