2026年5月13日 美国东部时间7:43 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
加利福尼亚州莫德斯托—— 每次重要考试前，南希·巴哈拉斯老师都会调暗灯光，打开迪斯科球，播放自己播放列表里的音乐。她带的六年级学生会一起跳舞，作为“预庆祝活动”来提振信心，随后再参加考试。
最近，加利福尼亚州莫德斯托的小学里有很多值得庆祝的事。在过去几年里，该地区的阅读和数学成绩一直在稳步提升。
但在全国范围内，结果却不容乐观。研究人员警告称，美国正经历一场阅读衰退——这一下滑趋势早在疫情打乱学校教学之前就已经出现。
哈佛大学、斯坦福大学和达特茅斯学院的学者分析了38个州5000多个学区三至八年级的州立考试成绩，从而得以在全国教育成绩单项目中对各学区和各州进行比较。
他们的发现令人警醒：2022年至2025年间，仅有5个州和哥伦比亚特区的阅读考试成绩实现了显著增长。从全国范围来看，学生的阅读成绩仍比疫情前落后近半个年级，数学成绩也仅略好于疫情前水平。
根据美国国家教育进展评估的数据，尽管自新冠疫情打乱教育秩序以来，学校一直致力于让学生追赶进度，但八年级学生的阅读成绩自2013年起、四年级学生的阅读成绩自2015年起就一直在下滑。
“疫情就像是一场泥石流，而此前七年学业成就一直在稳步下滑，”参与创建教育成绩单项目的哈佛大学教授托马斯·凯恩说道。
“‘学习衰退’始于十年前，当时政策制定者取消了基于考试问责的预警系统，而社交媒体则占据了孩子们的生活。”
但他补充道，“一小批州领导人已经开始扭转这一局面，他们改变了学生的阅读学习方式，还有108个地方学区也在想方设法让学生重新投入学习。”
“美国教育的复苏已经开始，但能否将复苏范围扩大，取决于我们其他人。”
取得进展的州和学区，主要是通过转向基于语音的教学，并为阅读困难学生提供额外支持来实现这一目标的。
数学方面的情况也更为乐观。
在2022年至2025年间，几乎所有参与分析的州的数学考试成绩都有所提升。大多数州的学生缺勤率也有所下降。在包括莫德斯托在内的400多个美国学区中，其阅读或数学成绩的增长速度超过了本州内人口结构相似的学区。
扭转“阅读衰退”局面
研究人员仍在就“阅读衰退”的成因展开争论。
研究人员表示，其中一个可能的因素是智能手机上社交媒体的兴起，以及相应的儿童休闲阅读时间减少。凯恩称，各州也放宽了对学生标准化考试成绩不佳的学校的严格处罚措施。
但那些阅读成绩有所提升的州——尤其是路易斯安那州、马里兰州、田纳西州、肯塔基州和印第安纳州——都有一个共同点：它们要求学校采用基于语音的教学方法，也就是所谓的“阅读科学”教学法。
多年来，学校的阅读教学一直不重视语音教学，而是鼓励学生根据上下文线索猜测词义。在过去十年里，随着阅读成绩持续下滑，家长、学者和扫盲倡导者一直在推动采用符合儿童阅读学习数十年研究成果的教学方法——主要是通过拼读单词来学习阅读。
除了改革教学方法之外，各州还要求学校筛查诵读困难等学习障碍，并聘请教练帮助教师改进阅读教学。
话虽如此，“阅读科学”改革并不能保证成功。佛罗里达州、亚利桑那州和内布拉斯加州等一些州虽然对阅读教学进行了部分改革，但考试成绩仍出现了下滑。
在莫德斯托学区，阅读教学在疫情期间进行了改革，数学教学则在几年前就完成了改革。该学区设立了一个部门，为仍在学习英语的学生提供帮助。学校还加强了教师培训，为完成名为LETRS（即《阅读与拼写教师语言要点》）的全面“阅读科学”课程的教育工作者支付5000美元奖金。
莫德斯托的考试成绩提升幅度相当于数学多学了18周、阅读多学了13周。尽管如此，该学区仍有很长的路要走：整体成绩仍远低于年级平均水平。
底特律扭转局面
聚焦阅读教学也改善了底特律的考试成绩——但让学生更规律地到校上课的努力同样发挥了作用。多年来，这个大型城市学区一直饱受恶劣的学校办学条件困扰，并因此在2016年引发了一起诉讼，学生们声称自己被剥夺了“阅读权”。
这起诉讼最终以超过9400万美元的和解协议告终，这笔资金帮助该学区取得了进展。尽管该学区的成绩仍远低于全国平均水平，但学生的考试成绩增长速度快于密歇根州内其他类似的城市学区。
“重建教育体系耗费了大量精力，如今孩子们的学习水平有所提升，但我仍不满意。我认为接下来的挑战是：继续激励、鼓舞并推动变革，”底特律学区负责人尼古拉·维蒂说道。
这笔资金帮助了位于底特律拉美裔聚居区的芒格中小学，该校聘请了18名教育工作者，以小组形式为学生提供额外辅导。一名考勤专员还会给缺勤学生的家庭打电话，甚至会上门家访。
一年级教师萨曼莎·查福内表示，就在几年前，她的班级每天有七八个孩子缺勤是常态，现在通常只有一两个孩子缺勤。
“孩子们能稳定到校上课，而不是一周只来一两次，这让我们能更好地开展教学工作，”查福内说道。“这带来了截然不同的效果。”
南部地区走在前列
在过去十年里，南部地区作为一个整体，在教育改革方面一直处于领先地位——打破了教育排名长期垫底的固有趋势。南部各州迅速转向采用基于研究的教学方法，并出资培训和指导教师。
这一举措取得了成效。路易斯安那州和阿拉巴马州是仅有的两个2025年数学成绩高于疫情前水平的州。路易斯安那州也是唯一一个阅读成绩恢复到疫情前平均水平的州，该州87%的传统公立学校学生所在学区的成绩都高于2019年的水平。
疫情过后，阿拉巴马州的阅读成绩取得了显著提升，这得益于该州一项要求所有学校采用语音教学的法律。2022年，该州借鉴阿拉巴马州阅读改革的成功经验，推出了数学改革法案。该州的《算术法案》统一了数学教学标准，要求定期进行测试，并要求为数学技能不足的学生提供干预措施。
伯明翰的奥克斯穆尔谷小学今年聘请了一名全职数学专家，帮助学习困难的学生。这所学校在2016年被列入州“不合格”名单，如今其数学和阅读成绩一直在稳步提升，尽管大多数学生的考试成绩仍未达到熟练水平。
“我们可以提供所有这些支持，但同时也要对学生抱有高期望，”伯明翰学区负责人马克·沙利文说道。
研究人员强调，这样的进步在美国各地都是可以实现的，因为之前已经有过先例。从20世纪90年代开始，美国在考试成绩和毕业率方面实现了数十年的增长，种族差距也有所缩小。这一进步势头一直持续到2010年代中期。
“在过去30多年里，我们国家在教育成就方面取得了巨大进步，考试成绩大幅提升，”斯坦福大学教授肖恩·里尔顿说道。“因此我认为，这表明作为一个国家，我们能够改善教育和教育机会。”
在巴哈拉斯老师任教的莫德斯托费尔维尤小学，学生们现在每天都会练习阅读速度和流畅度。在跳舞休息之后，全班同学会齐声朗读一页文本，时长一分钟，然后学生们两人一组再次朗读。学习英语的学生和以英语为母语的学生结对，每个孩子都有机会和巴哈拉斯老师一起阅读。
“最终你会像读水一样轻松读出单词，”一名男生说道。“你只要流畅地读出来就行。”
U.S. students’ “reading recession” continuing but some places bucking the trend, report shows
May 13, 2026 7:43 AM EDT / CBS/AP
Modesto, Calif. — Before every important test, teacher Nancy Barajas dims the lights, turns on a disco ball and blasts music from her playlist. Her sixth graders dance together as a “pre-celebration” to boost their confidence, then take their exam.
Lately, there’s been a lot to celebrate in elementary schools in Modesto, California. Both reading and math scores have increased consistently over the past several years.
But across the country, results are gloomier. Researchers warn that the U.S. is experiencing a reading recession – a slide predating the pandemic’s disruptions to schooling.
Scholars at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth analyzed state test scores from third to eighth grades from over 5,000 school districts in 38 states, enabling comparisons across school districts and states in a national Education Scorecard.
What they found was sobering: Only five states and the District of Columbia had meaningful growth in reading test scores from 2022 to 2025. Nationally, students remain nearly half a grade level behind pre-pandemic reading scores and only slightly better in math.
While schools have focused on catching kids up since the COVID-19 pandemic upended education, reading test scores have been falling since 2013 for eighth graders and 2015 for fourth graders, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
“The pandemic was the mudslide that had followed seven years of steady erosion in achievement,” said Thomas Kane, a Harvard professor who helped create the Education Scorecard.
“The ‘learning recession’ started a decade ago, after policymakers switched off the early warning system of test-based accountability and social media took over children’s lives.”
But, he continued, that’s being reversed by “a small group of state leaders who have started digging out by changing how students learn to read, and 108 local school districts that are finding ways to get students learning again.
“The recovery of U.S. education has begun. But it’s up to the rest of us to spread it.”
States and school districts making progress are doing so largely by shifting toward phonics-based instruction and providing extra support for struggling readers.
The picture is also brighter in math.
Almost every state in the analysis saw improvements in math test scores from 2022 to 2025. Student absenteeism also declined in most states. In over 400 U.S. school districts, including Modesto, reading or math growth outpaced demographically similar districts in the same state.
Turning the “reading recession” around
Researchers are still debating the causes of the “reading recession.”
One possible factor, researchers say, is the rise of social media on smartphones and corresponding declines in kids’ recreational reading. States have also backed off on strict consequences for schools whose students fail to make progress on standardized tests, Kane said.
But the states that improved reading scores – notably Louisiana, Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana – all had one thing in common: They ordered schools to teach with a phonics-based approach known as the “science of reading.”
For years, schools taught reading using approaches that de-emphasized phonics and encouraged strategies such as guessing words based on context clues. As reading scores tumbled over the past decade, parents, scholars and literacy advocates pushed for teaching methods that align with decades of research about how kids learn to read – largely by sounding out words.
Along with reforming teaching methods, states have also required schools to screen for learning disabilities such as dyslexia and to hire coaches to help teachers improve their reading instruction.
That said, “science of reading” reforms didn’t guarantee success. Some states, including Florida, Arizona and Nebraska, changed parts of their reading instruction but still saw test scores fall.
In Modesto, reading instruction was revamped during the pandemic, and math a couple years earlier. The district created a department to help students who are still learning English. Schools also ramped up teacher training, paying educators $5,000 to complete an extensive “science of reading” program called LETRS, or Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling.
Modesto’s test scores grew enough to represent an extra 18 weeks of learning in math and 13 weeks in reading. Nevertheless, the district still has a way to go: Overall scores remain far below grade level.
Detroit turning things around
A focus on reading has also improved scores in Detroit – but so have efforts to get kids in school more consistently. For years, the large urban district struggled with deplorable school conditions, leading to a 2016 lawsuit in which students argued they’d been denied the “right to read.”
The lawsuit ended in a settlement of over $94 million, money that helped move the needle. While the district is still far below the national average, student test scores have grown faster than in similar urban districts in Michigan.
“It took a lot to rebuild systems, and now kids are learning at higher levels, but I’m still not satisfied. And I think that’s the next challenge: continuing to motivate, inspire and change things,” said Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.
The money has helped Munger Elementary-Middle School, located in a largely Latino neighborhood in Detroit, to employ 18 educators who give kids extra support in small groups. An attendance agent also makes calls to the homes of absent students, even showing up at their doors.
Just a few years ago, says first grade teacher Samantha Ciaffone, it was normal for about seven or eight kids to be absent from her class every day. Now it’s usually only one or two.
“It allows us to be better educators to see kids consistently in the seat instead of once or twice a week,” said Ciaffone. “It makes such a difference.”
The South in the vanguard
For the last decade, the South has stood out as a region leading the way on education reforms – bucking an established trend of landing at the bottom of education rankings. Southern states were quick to change to research-based teaching methods, and states have paid to train and coach teachers.
It’s paid off. Louisiana and Alabama were the only states where math scores were higher in 2025 than pre-pandemic. Louisiana is also the only state that beat its pre-pandemic average in reading, with 87% of traditional public school students attending a district where scores are higher than in 2019.
Alabama had standout gains in reading following the pandemic, driven by a state law requiring every school to use phonics-based instruction. The Legislature modeled math reforms in 2022 off Alabama’s reading successes. The state’s Numeracy Act standardized math instruction, required regular testing and mandated intervention for kids who lacked adequate math skills.
Oxmoor Valley Elementary in Birmingham hired a full-time math specialist this year to help struggling kids. The school, which made the state’s “failing” list in 2016, has steadily improved math and reading scores, although a majority of kids still test below proficient in both subjects.
“We can provide all of these supports, but at the same time, hold kids to high expectations,” Birmingham Superintendent Mark Sullivan said.
Researchers stress such progress is possible across the U.S., because it’s been done before. Starting in the 1990s, the country saw decades of growth in test scores and graduation rates, while racial disparities declined. That progress continued until the mid-2010s.
“We made enormous progress as a country in terms of educational success from over a 30-year period. Test scores went up dramatically,” said Stanford professor Sean Reardon. “And so I think that says, as a country, we can improve education and educational opportunity.”
At Modesto’s Fairview Elementary, where Barajas teaches, students now practice their reading speed and fluency every day. After a dance break, the class reads a one-page text together in unison for one minute, then students split into pairs to read again. Students learning English are paired with native English speakers, and each child gets a turn reading with Barajas.
“Eventually, you get through the word like it’s water,” one boy said. “You just say it smooth.”