The Literacy Crisis Is Already Here. What Are We Going to Do About It?

There is a conversation happening in education that we cannot afford to keep having quietly.

Our children are struggling.

Not because they are incapable. Not because an entire generation suddenly stopped being intelligent. And not because teachers and parents do not care.

But the numbers are telling us something very clearly: too many students are leaving classrooms without the foundational skills they need to confidently read, comprehend, write, reason, and solve problems.

And at some point, we have to stop treating that like an individual child's problem.

It is a community problem.

It is an education problem.

And increasingly, it is becoming a workforce problem.

The numbers are hard to ignore

According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called The Nation's Report Card, only 31% of fourth-grade students performed at or above NAEP Proficient in reading. That was four percentage points lower than in 2019. NAEP's “Proficient” benchmark is its own academic-performance standard, not the same thing as a state's definition of grade-level proficiency, but the downward trend matters.

The decline is not confined to elementary school.

In 2024, the average reading score for American 12th graders was three points lower than in 2019 and ten points lower than it was in 1992. That means we are not simply looking at a temporary pandemic-era disruption. There are longer-term patterns that deserve our attention.

Reading habits have changed too.

Among 13-year-olds, 35% reported reading for fun almost every day in 1984. By the 2019–2020 school year, that figure had fallen to 17%. At the same time, the percentage who said they never or hardly ever read for fun rose from 8% to 29%.

And this does not simply disappear when students become adults.

Federal adult-skills data found that between 2017 and 2023, the percentage of U.S. adults performing at the lowest literacy proficiency level increased from 19% to 28%. Only 44% performed at Level 3 or above in literacy in 2023.

That should concern all of us.

This is bigger than reading a book

When people hear “literacy crisis,” they often picture a child struggling to sound out words.

That is part of it, but literacy reaches much further.

A student who struggles to read eventually struggles to understand a science textbook. They struggle to interpret a word problem in math. They struggle to identify the main idea in history. They struggle to follow written directions. They struggle to distinguish evidence from opinion.

Later, that same student may struggle to understand a lease, complete a job application, interpret workplace instructions, compare financial products, understand a medical document, or recognize when information online is misleading.

Reading is not one school subject. It is the doorway to almost every other subject.

And when that doorway becomes difficult to open, everything behind it becomes harder.

So what changed?

There is no single villain here.

It would be easy to blame technology. Or schools. Or parents. Or curriculum. Or COVID. Or social media.

Reality is more complicated.

Children are growing up in an environment where information arrives rapidly, attention is constantly being competed for, and reading often has to compete with entertainment designed to provide an immediate reward.

At the same time, schools are being asked to address enormous differences in student readiness.

One seventh-grade classroom can contain a student comfortably reading above grade level sitting beside another who still needs substantial support with foundational comprehension. Teachers are expected to teach the seventh-grade curriculum to both.

Parents are trying to help, but many do not know exactly where the gap started.

And students themselves often become embarrassed.

That last part matters. Because once a child begins believing “I'm just bad at this,” the academic gap can quickly become a confidence gap.

I have seen that happen too many times.

We also need to talk about the generation gap

There is a tendency for every generation to complain about the one after it. That is not what I am interested in doing.

Today's students are not less capable than the students who came before them. But they are developing academically in a very different environment, and some measurable skills have declined over time.

A high school senior today is navigating smartphones, algorithms, artificial intelligence, shortened content, constant notifications, and an almost unlimited amount of information.

That child needs more sophisticated literacy skills, not fewer.

They need to be able to read deeply. Question sources. Recognize bias. Compare arguments. Interpret data. Write clearly. Think critically. And use technology without allowing technology to do all of the thinking for them.

So when literacy skills decline while the information environment becomes more complicated, we have a serious problem.

This is where community matters

I believe schools matter. I believe teachers matter. I believe parents matter.

But I also believe education cannot stop when a child walks out of a school building.

That belief is one of the reasons I host community-centered educational events through Teach the Geek.

These events are about creating spaces where families can engage with learning outside of the pressure of a report card. Spaces where students can practice skills. Ask questions. Explore. Read. Solve problems. Build confidence. And where parents can connect with resources that help them understand what their children actually need.

Because closing academic gaps requires more than telling families that a gap exists. We have to give them somewhere to go next.

What Teach the Geek is building

Teach the Geek was never intended to become simply another tutoring company.

Tutoring is part of what we do. But the larger mission is about bridging gaps before those gaps become walls.

That means building resources that identify what a student knows before immediately pushing them into new material.

It means developing curriculum with readiness checks, targeted skill repair, guided instruction, practice, and opportunities for students to rebuild missing foundations instead of simply being told to “try harder.”

It means creating educational resources that teachers and parents can actually use. It means supporting students academically while also restoring confidence. And it means continuing to bring education into the community through events, partnerships, resources, and opportunities for families to learn together.

We are building math curriculum. We are building language programs. We are building academic support resources. And as Teach the Geek grows, community enrichment will grow with it.

Because education should not become easier to access only when a family has unlimited money, unlimited time, or already understands how to navigate the system.

We cannot keep waiting for students to fail first

One of the biggest changes I want to see in education is simple: stop waiting until a child is drowning before offering a life jacket.

If a fourth grader cannot confidently comprehend what they are reading, we should intervene.

If a seventh grader has never mastered fractions, we should repair the foundation before acting surprised when algebra becomes difficult.

If a high school student is afraid to read aloud, write an essay, or ask a question because they have spent years believing they are “not smart,” we need to address more than the assignment sitting in front of them.

We have to address the gap. And sometimes, we have to address the belief that grew inside that gap.

That is why one sentence remains at the heart of Teach the Geek:

You are more than your right now.

A student's current reading level is not their ceiling. Their current grade is not their identity. Their current struggle does not determine what they are capable of becoming.

But believing that requires more than inspirational words. It requires instruction. Resources. Practice. Patience. Opportunity. And people willing to do the work alongside them.

So where do we go from here?

We read with children. We let them see adults reading. We ask them questions that require more than one-word answers. We give them opportunities to write. We teach vocabulary. We limit the temptation to let technology answer every difficult question for them.

We intervene early. We support teachers. We equip parents. We create spaces in our communities where learning is normal, celebrated, and accessible.

And most importantly, we stop assuming someone else is going to fix it.

Because literacy affects every classroom, every workplace, every family, and eventually every community.

The statistics tell us there is a problem. What happens next depends on what we choose to do about it.

At Teach the Geek, we have chosen to get to work.