Mississippi has been rightfully proud of its significant improvement in reading, especially in the early elementary grades. The picture, however, is not so bright in the rest of the country or, for that matter, much of the rest of the world.
Earlier this month, the results of a standardized reading test taken by 15-year-olds around the globe showed that scores for Americans are now near their lowest point in 25 years. Similar declines on the Program for International Student Assessment were experienced in many other industrialized countries.
The global pandemic, which shut down schools and left children stuck in mediocre remote-learning programs at the beginning of this decade, certainly played a role. The decline, though, not just in reading but also in math began way before COVID-19.
The addiction to technology could be the biggest cause for this deterioration in academic skills, given the distractions and short-attention spans that excessive screen time produces. According to the PISA, the share of “hasty readers” – identified as those who skimmed the texts quickly and answered the questions incorrectly – almost doubled from 2018 to 2025.
There has been a lot of concern – and lawsuits – about how Big Tech is damaging children socially and emotionally. Those may not be the only parts of their brain that are suffering.
