How Changes to Fourth-Grade Reading Standards and Research-Backed Approaches Can Improve Reading Achievement

For more than 50 years, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card, has served as a tool to measure student achievement across core subjects including reading and math. NAEP data have also been used to inform policy decisions, investments, and evidence-based practices that improve education. While the NAEP has provided great insights into student performance nationally, including the latest data on the achievement levels of eighth graders in science and the proficiency levels of recent high school graduates in math and reading, discrepancies exist among what students are taught, how well they perform on their state assessments, and their performance on state assessments relative to their achievement on the NAEP.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced the No Child Left Behind Act in 2015 as the principal education accountability law. Under ESSA, states gained the flexibility to set their own academic standards and establish accountability plans. ESSA also requires that standards are “challenging” across reading, math, and science and that they promote college and career readiness. Despite these guidelines, specific education standards are left up to each state to set, review, and update. This issue brief analyzes the relationship between NAEP fourth-grade reading achievement and fourth-grade reading standards across four states that have experienced gains or steady achievement levels amid national decline on the most recent NAEP test: Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Massachusetts. Reading development changes over time, and fourth-grade reading represents a significant shift in a child’s learning. In earlier grades, children learn how to read through foundational skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. In fourth grade, students begin using oral reading fluency (ORF) skills they primarily developed in first through third grade as a tool for learning, enabling them to read and analyze complex texts that expand their knowledge of the world. Students’ ORF development was halted during spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting reading development and comprehension, which has had a cascading effect on achievement levels.

NAEP reading scores have been declining over the past decade. While the COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected schools and communities, these declines predated the pandemic and were only exacerbated by the challenges that followed. The achievement gap between low- and high-performing students continues to widen, and there is growing inequality between student groups. At the national level, fourth-grade reading scores for Black and Hispanic students have decreased. Students with disabilities have also seen a steady decline in fourth-grade reading scores over the past few testing cycles. Importantly, more high school seniors are graduating without proficiency in reading. Recent 2024 NAEP scores show that 32 percent of 12th graders achieved “below NAEP Basic” in reading, an increase from 30 percent in 2019 and 28 percent in 2015. All of these statistics reflect a much larger national issue of addressing reading achievement gaps for all students. These gaps stem, in part, from a history of not using research-based literacy methods to teach reading, limited access to high-quality instructional materials for teachers, and inequitable resource distribution to schools with the greatest need.

Seventy-five percent of states had a gap 15 percentage points or higher between their state reading assessment proficiency rates and their proficiency rates on the NAEP in 2024—for both fourth and eighth grades. This means that students are performing better on their statewide assessments than they are on the NAEP assessment, which suggests that state reading academic standards are not aligned to NAEP achievement levels. This misalignment can, in part, be explained by adjustments to state reading standards. In the past couple years, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Florida have lowered their proficiency threshold scores in both math and reading. Several states—including Oklahoma, Alaska, and New York—that seemingly made great strides in proficiency on their state reading assessments from 2022 to 2024 have also lowered their proficiency thresholds despite not adjusting their academic standards.

While NAEP performance and national averages help inform the conversation around student achievement, they don’t tell the whole story. National-level scores do not capture the progress happening at the local level as a result of investments in reading instruction.

Examining individual state academic standards is critical to determining whether state-level reading standards are aligned with NAEP cognitive reading targets and reading proficiency levels. However, standards alone aren’t a predictor of student success. It’s also important to understand the investments and behavioral changes that states have made to boost reading achievement levels. The case studies below provide information about academic standards and interventions states have implemented to improve overall reading performance.

Figure 1 analyzes actual NAEP fourth-grade reading scores over time and the equivalent score for how aligned the state standards are to NAEP standards across the states sampled.

State efforts to improve reading achievement and their alignment of reading standards to NAEP achievement levels

Back to basics

To move forward, sometimes it is critical to go back to basics. Bloom’s taxonomy, a tool that can help educators develop learning objectives, contains six levels that build off one another: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. NAEP Proficient and Advanced cognitive targets assess students on their ability to “infer,” “compare,” and “evaluate” across texts.

Across all four states considered in the case studies, standards focused on a strong reading foundation and the pillars of early literacy. All states have prioritized research and evidence-based approaches, mostly grounded in the Science of Reading, to develop skilled readers and improve overall reading achievement. For example, Alabama’s 2021 alignment with the NAEP Reading Framework and 2024 adoption of the SoR helped fourth-grade reading scores hold steady despite the loss of instructional time during the pandemic. Alabama’s prioritization of quality teaching has also been a hallmark of its success; the state adopting SoR standards for educator preparation and delivering training and coaching to teachers.

High academic and proficiency standards

All the states considered in the case studies, except one, had fourth-grade reading scores at or above the national average in 2024. However, Massachusetts, the only state with fourth-grade reading standards aligned to the NAEP Proficient scale, scored the highest. This suggests that states whose reading and proficiency standards are more rigorous and aligned with NAEP Proficient are more likely to experience higher student achievement. While southern states such as Louisiana and Mississippi have been widely recognized for their progress on the 2024 NAEP test, it is important to note the rigorous proficiency standards that contributed to consistently high achievement in Massachusetts. A state’s reading standards’ alignment to a NAEP scale is only one portion of what contributes to student achievement. How students perform in reading, as well as other subjects, also depends on other factors such as parental involvement and students’ access to libraries and literary materials.

Investing in education

Narratives about superfluous investments in public education have been misguided. Federal relief investments in education have led to gains in both reading and math. Moreover, student achievement blossomed in districts that funded high-dosage tutoring and summer learning programs and in states—such as Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Alabama—that invested in the infrastructure to support literacy development, including data coaches and high-quality instructional materials. Investing in the future of the nation’s students through education is worthwhile for both improved education outcomes and for the success of the economy.

What is measured can be improved

The purpose of dissecting student achievement data is to assess student progress and develop policies to address areas for improvement. Through the NAEP, the U.S. Department of Education ensures that educators, parents, policymakers, and the public have access to state- and national-level data to hold the nation’s education system accountable. Without the data collection, statistical analyses and evaluation that have historically been conducted by the research centers within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which the current administration has compromised and seeks to redesign, education experts would only be able to rely on reading test data from states, which greatly vary in their assessment strategies.

While Trump administration actions have undermined the federal role in education by cutting state and district funding that supports high-quality instruction and effective educators and pays for research that aids literacy instruction, state policymakers must continue to seek new, innovative ways to develop skilled readers. State and district officials can and should act immediately to adopt scientific literacy approaches, rigorous state academic standards, and high-quality instructional materials, as well as to align literacy standards to the NAEP Reading Framework and the Proficient scale. Congress must also work to ensure that federal supports are not upended. The progress featured in the state case studies can be partly attributed to federal investments, including COVID-19 relief funds that supported research-backed interventions and critical federal programs.

Ensure rigorous and aligned reading standards, curricula, and assessments

States should ensure that their reading assessments are touching on key cognitive targets measured in the NAEP assessments. To accomplish this, states should start by aligning their reading standards with the NAEP Reading Framework and the NAEP Proficient level rather than the NAEP Basic level to make sure reading instruction is prompting the various mental processes outlined in the cognitive targets to promote improved literacy skills. Under ESSA, standards across subjects, including reading, are to be “challenging.” When states are considering how to adjust their standards, they should ensure that they are going beyond the “remember,” “understand,” and “apply” portions of Bloom’s taxonomy and toward the “analyze,” “evaluate,” and even “create” levels. States should aim to produce standards that challenge students and implement evidence-based reading instruction strategies to ensure continued progress.

Rather than lowering standards so that students can be identified as performing on grade level without demonstrating proficiency, states should raise the proficiency bar or the scores necessary to pass state assessments to ensure that every child is a skilled and fluent reader.

Adopt and expand the use of evidence-based approaches

States should adopt and train teachers in scientific approaches to literacy instruction such as the Science of Reading. Using evidence-based approaches that are proved to be effective will lead to more skilled readers. States should also continue to invest in early literacy efforts and high-dosage tutoring, supportive strategies that have demonstrated significant positive impacts on reading achievement across all the states considered in the case studies.

Summer learning programs, such as the reading camps that the state of Alabama instituted, have also shown promising effects on reading achievement. During the summer, students can experience “summer slide,” meaning they can fall behind and lose their academic progress. Summer slide especially affects economically disadvantaged students. Federal pandemic relief dollars allowed many states to implement high-quality summer programming and witness its positive impacts on student achievement firsthand.

To ensure that states and districts continue to have access to the most current scientific evidence that supports high-quality reading instruction, the federal government must ensure a fully funded and functioning Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education. The IES houses the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the NAEP. Additionally, the IES ensures the production of credible studies, intervention reports, and practice guides to inform classroom instruction. Many of the practical tools used by educators are available to the public through the IES’ What Works Clearinghouse. With nearly $900 million in contract cuts, however, the IES will be severely limited in its ability to carry out its regular functions. Federal policymakers must advocate to restore this funding to preserve these national-level data collection efforts to improve education. State-level policymakers must advocate for robust state-level data collection. The IES cuts that the Trump administration labeled as combating “fraud and abuse” shattered the systems used to assess and evaluate education efficiency and effectiveness to promote student achievement and to help states implement strategies that have proved to improve reading.

Other evidence-based strategies, including the use of data coaches in literacy instruction, have been critical to the success of states such as Mississippi. Data coaches help increase teachers’ capacity to deliver differentiated instruction and improve their overall practice. K-12 education systems often collect a deluge of data, from diagnostic data to formative and summative student assessment data, but teachers rarely have the capacity and bandwidth to apply data points in their decision-making and instructional practice. Data coaches help facilitate teachers’ effective use of data to improve reading instruction.

Increasing state support and the use of high-quality instructional materials

Alongside adopting scientific methods, states should ensure that teachers have access to standards-aligned high-quality instructional materials for their classrooms. HQIMs have been a key contributor to Louisiana’s improvement, from being 50th in fourth-grade reading to 16th in just five years. To identify, develop, and implement HQIMs effectively, many states turn to the Department of Education for guidance and resources. Gutting federal supports and technical assistance will only negatively affect student achievement in reading. The Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) grant program is one of several Department of Education grants that targets literacy that could aid efforts to adopt and ensure the use of HQIMs. This program was funded at $194 million in fiscal year 2024 and serves students across 36 states and U.S. territories. In 2024, the CLSD program launched its National Literacy Center, which contains resources to support student achievement in literacy from birth to 12th grade, including but not limited to state literacy plan support; state literacy plan tools; professional learning modules; and evidence-based resources to create, implement, and assess literacy programs. Cuts across federal education funding coinciding with the loss of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding are leaving states struggling to make up the difference—with high-poverty districts bearing the brunt of defunding.

The Department of Education has consistently served as a lighthouse that has illuminated the way for states on their desired path to student achievement through data, financial support, and technical assistance. To extinguish that light in any form is to cut off the main entity responsible for ensuring that all students have equitable access to the resources they need to succeed in reading and in their education as a whole.

As states and districts continue investing in solutions to improve student achievement in reading, it’s critical to prioritize scientific, evidence-based strategies. States that have adopted rigorous standards aligned with curricula and assessments and that have prioritized the science of reading, high-quality instructional materials, and early literacy efforts have seen a return on investment. States should consistently seek out research and evidence-based practices for reading instruction and invest in supportive strategies to reinforce student learning. In the face of dramatic cuts to critical federal-level data collection, reporting, and technical assistance, state and federal policymakers must reject repeated attempts to scale back education research. This research is essential to assess what works and how to help students improve. Reading is a fundamental skill that shows up in every aspect of a child’s education. It is paramount that states continue on the path to proficiency and beyond.