America has a reading crisis. Only one-third of American students are reading proficiently by fourth grade, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. And, while school closures as a result of the pandemic seem to largely be a thing of the past now, they’ve greatly exacerbated the problem that American school systems have been in for decades. Certainly, there are many factors at work, but a major cause of this crisis is the widespread use of teaching and assessment methods that aren’t particularly effective and are even, sometimes, harmful.
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