Many Maryland students are not proficient in reading, according to a new report by Maryland READS.
“Reading is first and foremost a gateway to all of the learning and all other subjects,” said Trish Brennan-Gac, executive director of Maryland Reads. “The more we can make them confident and thriving readers, there’s also going to be other effects of that in a child’s well-being.”
She said the organization’s new report, titled “The State of Reading in Maryland 2025: It’s Time for a Comeback After a Decade of Decline,” shows that education spending has grown 37%, but that’s not paying off when it comes to students being able to read.
“Our reading proficiency rates have dropped, and we’re just now starting to see a little uptick, which we attribute to some state systems work that the state has been doing to support reading instruction in schools.”
The study found that 67% of fourth grade students are not proficient in reading, which is a slight improvement from 69% in 2022.
However, there was no change over the past three years for eighth grade students, with the report showing 67% are still not reading proficient.
In their research, Maryland READS found one of the major barriers is technology.
“What we need to do is really dig in and fund more research and understand where can technology be effective, and where can it — where is it contributing to the problems of proficiency rates,” Brennan-Gac said.
“It’s an uncomfortable conversation, because we have so much technology in our schools, but if we don’t start that conversation, and if we don’t look into research more, we’re never going to solve this problem.”
At the current pace of reading proficiency, the report shows it would take 62 years for Maryland to reach 95% proficiency, according to Maryland READS.
See the full report here.
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