The Literacy Crisis and Why Georgia’s Children Are Struggling to Read

By: Breanna Tillie

According to Axios Atlanta News, only 39% of third-grade students were at or above proficient in English/Language Arts on the Georgia Milestones assessment in 2023. This statistic is alarming for educators, concerning for parents and discouraging for students as it speaks to the growing literacy crisis among children. The ability to read and write is necessary for communication skills, independence and academic success. However, the media continues to present evidence suggesting that currently, children are struggling to read at a far higher rate than earlier generations.

The University of West Georgia’s Volunteer Ambassadors will host the Little One’s & Literature event on March 27 from 3:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. This event is dedicated to promote reading and literacy among children in honor of National Reading Month.

“Being involved with the Volunteer Ambassadors has heavily influenced my desire to be a teacher,” said Reginald Ponder, a member of Volunteer Ambassadors pursuing a degree in Education with the desire to teach English. “We do a plethora of services and volunteer work both in and out of schools.”

As an aspiring English teacher who has assisted in classrooms and worked with children, Ponder believes there are a number of reasons for the growing literacy crisis.
“It’s extremely hard for me to fathom how many kids aren’t learning phonics anymore,” said Ponder. “What they’re doing now is just vocabulary. Kids don’t know how to break down and digest words to pronounce them correctly without phonics. They are just able to identify the word itself and what it looks like, however they can’t pronounce it properly.”

In addition to the lack of attention toward phonics, Ponder also states that social media plays a large role in students not being able to write properly. The slang used on social media will sometimes appear in academic writing, and students will see no problem with it.

“They are bringing the use of slang into the classroom and on their writing assignments,” said Ponder. “‘Gonna’ is not a word and ‘bc’ is not how you spell ‘because.’ But a lot of times middle schoolers and younger children don’t even catch themselves writing that.”

Ponder states there are signs to watch out for that may indicate a student is struggling with reading.

“The children in the classroom often read out loud and some of them don’t have any rhythm,” said Ponder. “And sometimes they’ll reach longer words and instead of sounding them out to figure out the word, they’ll pause and then skip over it altogether.”

Ponder also states that some students are at a disadvantage regarding literacy because of socioeconomic factors beyond the control of both the teacher and the student.

“Underfunded schools often have crazy student to teacher class ratios,” said Ponder. “The children with parents who work a lot may say their parents are too busy to come to the school and check up on them or pick them up from tutoring if the school has tutoring.”

Ponder says he looks forward to starting his career in education and hopes to see change.