Teachers Need Guidance to Support Student Reading in Grades 3–8

 Despite the growing body of research on how to support older readers, few studies consider whether U.S. teachers can identify students who have difficulty reading instructional materials across content areas or whether teachers feel like they have the knowledge and resources to support those students. Such information could lay the groundwork for states and school systems to provide better supports to teachers to address students' reading difficulties. In this RAND report, researchers explore U.S. public school teachers' perceptions of students' difficulties with reading in grades 3–8, those teachers' knowledge about how students learn to read, their experiences supporting these readers, and what they need to help students become proficient readers.

The findings in this report highlight the importance of including teachers in upper elementary and middle school grades in resource development and allocation and offer guidance to policymakers designing or implementing reading instruction reforms.

Key Findings

• According to a nationally representative sample of U.S. grade 3–8 teachers across all subjects, students spend more than half of their class time reading and writing.
• These grade 3–8 teachers estimate that 44 percent of their students always or nearly always experience difficulty reading the written content within their instructional materials.
• Among teachers of grades 3–8, 40 percent hold misconceptions about how students develop word-reading skills, and nearly half of teachers in these grades report that their primary source of knowledge about reading instruction comes from their personal experiences in the classroom.
• Almost three-quarters of teachers in grades 3–8 say that they need access to more resources to identify and support students with reading difficulties.