Struggling Adolescent Readers Left Behind - Evidence of Post-COVID-19 Declines and Pathways Forward

Oct 15, 2026

Brief examining adolescent literacy after the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on how struggling middle school readers fared relative to higher-achieving peers. Highlights that math and early reading show recovery signals in some post-COVID indicators, yet middle school reading stagnated for the average student and continued to decline for the lowest-achieving readers. Uses MAP Growth and cross-assessment comparisons to show persistent post-2022 downward trajectories and widening skill gaps, then identifies state policy directions to extend early literacy supports into middle grades.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Continued declines for lowest-performing middle school readers following COVID-19

Evidence across MAP Growth percentiles

Post-COVID-19 declines at the 10th percentile across assessments

BRIEF Struggling adolescent readers left behind: Evidence of post-COVID-19 declines and pathways forward Megan Kuhfeld, Naomi Duran, Karyn Lewis, Carrie Heath Phillips, and Samantha Musacchia August 2026 KEY FINDINGS • In contrast to signs of progress toward academic recovery in math and in elementary grades in reading, middle school reading test scores have stagnated for the average student and continued to drop among struggling readers. • Across multiple assessments, reading test scores for the lowest-achieving middle school students continued dropping after 2022. Introduction After years of discouraging headlines about a nationwide “learning recession” and test score declines following the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been some recent positive trends suggesting that schools may be turning the tide of recovery. Across multiple post-COVID assessments, we have seen incremental progress in math and scores stabilizing or even showing small improvements in reading. For example, the Education Scorecard showed higher than expected growth in both math and reading from 2024 to 2025. NWEA data indicate that at least one in three public schools has fully recovered from COVID-19 learning declines by 2024. It is important to acknowledge and celebrate this hard-won progress. Despite these encouraging signs of progress, there are consistent and alarming signs that middle school reading test scores have continued to decline following the pandemic. In this brief, we dig into the mostrecent data on adolescent literacy, focusing specifically on how struggling readers have fared compared to higher-achieving students. These persistent declines suggest that recent literacy reforms, which have largely focused on early grades, may not adequately support students whose reading difficulties extend into middle school. We therefore conclude by highlighting some promising state policies that build on successful early literacy reforms and extend supports into the middle school grades. Continued declines for lowest-performing middle school readers following COVID-19 Figure 1 tracks changes in sixth-grade MAP Growth reading scores between 2017 and 2025 for students atthe 10th, 50th, and 90th percentile1 of the score distribution. To make changes over time easier to compare, each percentile group’s average score is shown relative to its own average in 2019, with values below zero indicating declines in reading achievement from pre-pandemic levels. Although students at the 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles differed substantially in their reading achievement before the pandemic, each group begins at zero because the figure shows changes relative to its own pre-pandemic baseline. Across the distribution, students’ reading scores fell between spring 2019 and spring 2021 following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with larger declines among lower-achieving students. These trajectories diverge after 2022. Reading scores for students at the middle and top of the distribution remain below prepandemic trends but largely stabilized. In contrast, reading scores for students at the 10th percentile have not stabilized. Despite some year-to-year fluctuation, their reading scores continued to trend downward 1 The data used in this brief comes from the MAP Growth National Dashboard, which is based on test scores from over 20 million K–8 students in 30,000 schools . Within each grade/subject/term, we estimated the RIT score corresponding to the 10th, 50th, and 90th percentile of the observed score distribution in that term (i. e. , the scores below which 10%, 50%, and 90% of students performed) . More methodological details are available in the technical appendix. NWEA Struggling adolescent readers left behind: Evidence of post-COVID-19 declines and pathways forward | 2 overall, leaving them even further below 2019 levels by 2025. As a result, the gap in reading skills between middle school students at the bottom and top of the distribution

FAQs

What overall reading trend does the brief report for middle school students after COVID-19?

Middle school reading test scores have stagnated for the average student and continued to drop among struggling readers, especially those at the lowest-achieving levels.

How do trends differ between the bottom and higher-achieving readers?

Scores for mid and top percentiles largely stabilized after 2022, while the 10th percentile continued to trend downward, widening the skills gap.

What does the brief suggest about current literacy reforms and policy responses?

It argues that many reforms focused on early grades may not adequately support students whose reading difficulties extend into middle school, so it highlights promising state policies to extend those supports.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Quinn Holloway