Digital Reading Boost Kids’ Reading Time in Malaysia. Rest of the World, Take Note!

Malaysian students' reading scores have plummeted, but digital platforms present an unexpected solution for publishing professionals.
https://thenewpublishingstandard.com/2025/12/31/malaysia-digital-reading-lifeline/

#IPA #Malaysia #ReadingCrisis #SEAsia #InternbationalPublishersAssociation

#Denmark abolishes VAT on #books in order to address the #ReadingCrisis.

I think that's a great idea! While crap is generally free to read, see #X etc., why would we want make quality content less accessible by imposing taxes!?

Well ok, while certainly not every book is great, there is still a tendency that longer formats allow for a higher quality in information, education or entertainment.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crm48mvl33ro

'Reading crisis' prompts Denmark to end 25% tax on books

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2025/0820/1529397-denmark-book-tax/

#HackerNews #ReadingCrisis #Denmark #BookTax #TaxRelief #Literacy

Opinion | There is no reading crisis in the U.S. Here’s what’s really happening. – The Washington Post

Opinion

There is no reading crisis in the U.S. Here’s what’s really happening.

Politicians and journalists are misinterpreting the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

By Paul Thomas

Paul L. Thomas is a professor of education at Furman University and author of “How to End the Reading War and Serve the Literacy Needs of All Students.”

After her controversial appointment, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon posted this apparently uncontroversial claim on social media: “When 70% of 8th graders in the U.S. can’t read proficiently, it’s not the students who are failing — it’s the education system that’s failing them.”

Americans are used to hearing about the nation’s reading crisis. In 2018, journalist Emily Hanford popularized the current “crisis” in her article “Hard Words,” writing, “More than 60 percent of American fourth-graders are not proficient readers, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and it’s been that way since testing began in the 1990s.”

Five years later, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof repeated that statistic: “One of the most bearish statistics for the future of the United States is this: Two-thirds of fourth graders in the United States are not proficient in reading.”

Each of these statements about student reading achievement, though probably well-meaning, is misleading if not outright false. There is no reading crisis in the U.S. But there are major discrepancies between how the federal government and states define reading proficiency.

At the center of this confusion is the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a congressionally mandated assessment of student performance known also as the “nation’s report card.” The NAEP has three achievement levels: “basic,” “proficient” and “advanced.”

The disconnect lies with the second benchmark, “proficient.” According to the NAEP, students performing “at or above the NAEP Proficient level … demonstrate solid academic performance and competency over challenging subject matter.” But this statement includes a significant clarification: “The NAEP Proficient achievement level does not represent grade level proficiency as determined by other assessment standards (e.g., state or district assessments).”

In almost every state, “grade level” proficiency on state testing correlates with the NAEP’s “basic” level; in 2022, 45 states set their standard for reading proficiency in the NAEP’s “basic” range. Therefore, it is inaccurate to say that nearly two-thirds of fourth-graders are not capable readers.

The NAEP has been a key mechanism for holding states accountable for student achievement for over 30 years. Yet, educators have expressed doubt over the assessment’s utility. In 2004, an analysis by the American Federation of Teachers raised concerns about the NAEP’s achievement levels: “The proficient level on NAEP for grade 4 and 8 reading is set at almost the 70th percentile,” the union wrote. “It would not be unreasonable to think that the proficiency levels on NAEP represent a standard of achievement that is more commonly associated with fairly advanced students.”

The NAEP has set unrealistic goals for student achievement, fueling alarm about a reading crisis in the United States that is overblown. The common misreading of NAEP data has allowed the country to ignore what is urgent: addressing the opportunity gap that negatively impacts Black and Brown students, impoverished students, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Opinion | There is no reading crisis in the U.S. Here’s what’s really happening. – The Washington Post

#2025 #America #AmericanFederationOfTeachers #Books #DonaldTrump #Education #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #NAEP #Politics #Reading #ReadingCrisis #Resistance #Science #States #TeachingReading #TheWashingtonPost #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates