For junior Fatoumata Balde, the literacy crisis is a personal issue that affects her family directly. 

“Someone in my family is unable to read and write (proficiently) and it causes a lot of trouble in their daily life, as everything they go through has to do with reading or writing,” Balde said. “Things like signing legal papers or reading labels can be difficult for them, and it makes our lives harder as well.”  

Junior Olivia Deloney said she has also seen the literacy crisis manifest in her friends and peers. 

“There’s a lot of spelling errors, not just people using abbreviations but people genuinely not knowing how to spell basic words,” Deloney said. “When people sound (words) out, they still don’t know what letter corresponds to which sound.” 

Balde and Deloney aren’t alone in their concerns surrounding literacy. The Nation’s Report Card reported earlier this year that around 40% of fourth graders are reading below grade level, the highest percentage since 2002. They also reported that 45 million adults read below a fifth-grade level, making them functionally illiterate. These statistics illustrate that a literacy crisis has taken hold of American students. 

English teacher Kayla Gerlach said she has also noticed a larger proportion of students struggling with reading comprehension. 

“I’m definitely seeing a lack of comprehension of literature. There is frequently an issue of people who read the words on a page but don’t comprehend it. I also teach at Ivy Tech and I’m seeing a large impact of (the literacy crisis) there as well,” Gerlach said. 

Contributing Factors 

Gerlach also said social media is playing a major role in contributing to the literacy gap. 

“I would say a large part of the problem is the social media piece of it: short little audio bites and audio versions of things,” Gerlach said. “I love a good audiobook, but I do think it’s causing problems for people who can’t comprehend what they are physically reading and then also the attention span problem. Everything is so short and quick now that taking information in is more of a challenge now.” 

Balde said she agrees with Gerlach on the role of social media, but also believed online learning during COVID-19 also played a role. 

“I think a lot of people were on social media all of the time during COVID-19 and a lot of people were not doing homework or actually learning for like 6 months,” Balde said.

Deloney said the pandemic definitely played a role and impacted young students the most. 

“Young kids, like middle schoolers, I’ve noticed have a genuine problem with spelling because they didn’t learn basic skills during the pandemic,” Deloney said. “Grammar, sentence structure and punctuation aren’t common knowledge among young students anymore.”

Balde said AI is playing a major role in the literacy crisis. 

“AI has played a huge role, it’s just an easy search and it can do anything and everything for you. It takes up a huge ‘thinking’ role from us, so we’re not able to process things well,” Balde said. As it gets bigger and as more teachers influence (students) to start using it, it’s going to be taking over the world and a lot of kids are not going to be learning the stuff they should be.” 

Gerlach said the prevalence of AI in writing is cause for concern but that effective AI use can be beneficial. 

“I have seen a lot of AI in writing. I would like to see AI more as a tool versus taking over the thinking,” Gerlach said. “I think that has caused a literacy crisis as well with students using AI to do their thinking for them versus them doing the thinking and critically analyzing what AI is hooting back at them.”

Teaching Methods

Deloney also said current teaching methods are contributing to illiteracy and will impact disadvantaged students the most. 

“I think that a lot of teachers don’t cater to certain learning habits anymore and it’s all lecture and note-taking, but not everyone learns like that. I think people do want to learn, it’s just that teachers aren’t teaching in a way that students want to learn,” Deloney said. “In low-income communities, teaching is already not funded well. I feel like poor early education in disadvantaged communities is going to affect them negatively and make it that much harder for them to get higher education later on.” 

Gerlach said teachers are trying to bridge the literacy gap through effective instruction. 

“I would say at the high school level, there’s a lot of space for teachers to bridge the (literacy) gap. I think we’re taught to meet students where they are versus approaching where they should be and helping get them there,” Gerlach said. “In AP Lang, we read a lot of older texts and reading them at grade level and being able to unpack that with students helps them bridge the gap instead of getting them from a sixth grade reading level to a seventh and tenth grade level, I’m jumping to the end of where we’re at and helping them understand the context of the material they are reading. Kind of like big picture comprehension as opposed to small little pieces of it.” 

Gerlach also said new diploma requirements in Indiana would allow students to graduate without meeting certain expectations. 

“I do think that the changes to the diploma requirements are making it to where a student doesn’t have to be ‘grade-level literate’ in order to move on from high school,” Gerlach said. “I think Carmel High School does this pretty well as we hold high academic standards, even if other groups aren’t requiring that. So when someone graduates from Carmel High School with their degree, that means something and they are achieving certain things that the rest of the state doesn’t require necessarily.” 

Consequences of Literacy Crisis 

Deloney said the current gap in education is going to hurt the youth when they enter the workforce. 

“When the next generation goes on to take on big jobs, they won’t fully know what they are doing and the criteria of their job. If there’s less learning happening, when young people get jobs or make decisions politically, those jobs/decisions won’t be the product of thorough education.

Gerlach said the widening education gap will pull people to more extremes economically and politically. 

“I think that intellect as a whole is a key piece of anything we do when we graduate high school. When we’re seeing a gap in education and intellect in general, we will see a bigger divide in the middle group, and people will get further and further apart,” Gerlach said. “It’s already happening and I’m concerned to see that continue as the divide becomes more hate filled. Research shows that intellect, education, and money are all directly connected and I think that’s going to be a bigger problem.” 

Strategies for Boosting Literacy 

Gerlach said parents play a key role in fostering early literacy and said she encourages parents to read to their children more

“There’s so much research that says reading to your child early on helps with so many things. I think encouraging students to get off of screens is helpful and reading to them helps with vocabulary and comprehension.” Gerlach said. 

Balde said teachers should assign people more reading and limit social media to boost literacy. 

“I think assigning people more reading is important because I feel like nobody really enjoys reading anymore. I think we should also encourage time limits with social media and be stricter with certain teaching styles.” Balde said. 

Deloney said she thinks literacy could be bolstered by more catered teaching methods. 

“(Teachers) should cater to kids’ learning styles because you can’t learn if your teacher isn’t teaching you in a way that makes sense for you,” Deloney said. “I think it’s also important to be patient in the classroom. English can be hard, but catering to kids will make it easier for them to learn.”  

Although the nation is experiencing a literacy crisis, it’s important to note that Indiana offers a glimpse of hope. According to the Indiana Department of Education, Indiana has increased reading scores by three points at the fourth-grade and eighth-grade reading levels. This showcases how despite a national literacy problem, individual state literacy can still be boosted.