The first update to national silent reading rate norms in more than 50 years found that today’s elementary, middle and high school students read silently at significantly lower rates than students in 1960.
Research Summary
| Grades: | 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 |
| Participants: | n = 2,009 |
| Measure: | Visagraph Eye Movement Recording System |
| Publication: | Reading Research Quarterly (2016) |
| Authors: | Alexandra Spichtig, Elfrieda Hiebert, Christian Vorstius, Jeffrey Pascoe, P. David Pearson, and Ralph Radach |
This study measured the comprehension-based silent reading efficiency of a nationally representative sample of general education students enrolled in U.S. public schools across grades 2–12. Study results established the first update to silent reading norms since 1960, and compared current silent reading efficiency to that of students in 1960.
Average silent reading rates, measured in words per minute (WPM) increased with students’ grade level, except for a notable pattern between grades 6 and 8 where reading rate growth stalled across all quartiles. Changes in the other three silent reading efficiency measures (fixations, fixation duration, regressions) showed similar patterns of development over grades.
Comparison to 1960 study: While current grade 2 students matched their 1960 cohort, the silent reading rates of current students were lower than 1960 rates at all other grade levels. For current students, reading rate growth was much more gradual throughout the secondary grades. For example, current 12th grade students had average silent reading rates similar to 7th grade students in 1960. This potentially reflects differences in instructional practice, word recognition automaticity, and insufficient silent reading practice. [The Stanford Taylor Foundation’s programs are developed to address this decline in silent reading performance.]
Link to Article on ResearchGate