Student literacy is in trouble nationally. Illinois is one of 41 states where just 1 in 3 or fewer of its fourth-graders met reading standards in 2024.
By Hannah Schmid | Illinois Policy Institute
Fewer than one-third of Illinois fourth-grade students met or exceeded reading proficiency standards on a recent national assessment, part of a nationwide literacy crisis in which students are already behind in fourth grade.
Students failed to meet or exceed reading standards in most states in 2024. Illinois joined 40 other states and Washington, D.C., in which 1 in 3, or fewer, fourth-grade students met or exceeded reading standards.
Research has pinpointed third grade as a critical reading milestone because students need to have learned to read by then or they will not be able to absorb curricula during the remainder of their school years. If they cannot read, social studies, math and other subjects become incomprehensible and their futures bleak.
But there’s hope: Many states, including Illinois, have passed laws aimed at aligning reading instruction with evidence-based practices to improve the literacy and academic achievement of students. Still, Illinois could and should do more.
Just 30% of Illinois fourth graders are proficient in reading
Every two years, fourth- and eighth-grade students across the nation take the National Assessment of Educational Progress. According to the Nation’s Report Card, it is “the only assessment that allows comparison of results from one state with another, or with results for the rest of the nation.”
On the most recent national exam in 2024, Illinois ranked 29th in the U.S. for the percentage of fourth graders at or above proficiency in reading – down from 17th in 2022. It went from being in the top half of states to the bottom half in just two years.
The national percentage of students meeting or exceeding reading standards was just 31%, with 26 states seeing proficiency above that level. But Illinois didn’t even meet that low bar, missing the national average by one-tenth of a point. But four other Midwestern states were above that level: Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Leading the nation was Massachusetts, where 40.4% of fourth graders were at or above proficiency in reading. Following were New Jersey with 38.3% and Utah at 36.3%.
At the bottom: New Mexico with 20.3%, followed by Alaska at 21.7% and Oklahoma at 22.7%.
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