Why Public School Students Won’t Read

It has a lot to do with public school reading material, the founder of the appropriately named Success Academy points out. “Most public schools exhibit a pervasive disregard for text quality and content, and it is a missed opportunity,” Eva Moskowitz writes. “Voracious reading is a critical way to build background knowledge and vocabulary, to cultivate students’ capacity for analysis and critical thinking, and to support their development as fluid, expressive writers.”

“But these benefits don’t accrue if students are reading books with unimaginative illustrations, limited vocabulary, shallow ideas, and a narrow range of topics. This applies as much to kindergarteners as it does to middle and high schoolers, and it is the impetus for our fierce engagement with literature at Success Academy.”

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