Kate Cammack, CfT Co-Director
“Much more than decoding and literal comprehension, reading involves understanding and reflection, and the ability to use reading to fulfill one’s goal” (OECD, 2004, p. 26).
How often have you thought with frustration, “My students aren’t doing their reading!”
It’s a common and complex problem that can quickly (and unhappily) change our class plans, social dynamics, and students’ learning.
It’s also not new. One study found that reading compliance dropped over 60% between 1981 and 1997. In a 2012 study, less than 50% of first-year students (despite being “fresh” and possibly more eager?) reported that they’d completed an assigned reading. Perhaps worse, over half of those self-identified readers were unable to demonstrate basic comprehension of the reading (e.g., accurately summarize the reading in 3 sentences). Unsurprisingly, students do not accurately report their reading compliance.
This problem is only exacerbated by more recent factors, ranging from pandemic-related setbacks in learning (including critical-reading skills) to the rise of GenAI. And it shows up in various ways, including how students cite sources.
At one level, we can think about these issues arising from a student-centric perspective (e.g., “they’re too overcommitted!”) and faculty behavior (e.g., “maybe I’m assigning too much reading?”). And there are indeed effective ways to adjust your classes to encourage reading compliance.
But we also want to retain focus on the deeper, underlying issue – intentional skill-building around reading. While some skills might look different across disciplines and for different types of reading, from academic articles to literary texts to research studies, we all want our students to cultivate a deeper understanding of what critical reading actually means and how to do it.
This spring, we’ll be hosting a set of interactive conversations on getting students to read. One session will focus on social sciences & STEM, and one session will focus on humanities; come for one or both, as there’s always something to be learned from different perspectives.
In the meantime, here are a few good articles:
McMurtrie (2024) Is this the end of reading?
Kotsko (2024) The loss of things I took for granted
Vyse (2025) Why aren’t students reading?
McMurtrie (2025) The reading struggle meets AI