Reading

Utah isn’t just a hot spot for fantasy readers, the state has also produced several best-selling authors like Orson Scott Card and Shannon Hale.

“Our second and our third graders stayed very stagnant; it was about exactly the same as where we were the year before. We've kind of hit a plateau,” Julie Clark with the Utah State Board of Education said of reading at grade level by the end of the 2023-2024 school year.

According to a KUER analysis of public records, 25 books are teetering on the edge of being banned statewide.

Ivory’s news conference at the Utah State Capitol featured educators and clergy, and showed attendees passages from books banned statewide in schools.

The list includes books by Judy Blume, Margaret Atwood and several by Sarah J. Maas.

A 2022 law directed the Utah State Board of Education to put literacy coaches in schools with low literacy rates.

The report from the National Council on Teacher Quality gave the test that Utah uses a “strong” rating, while 29 other states got a “weak” rating.

Utah has a goal of getting 70% of third-grade students reading at grade level by 2027. As of the end of the last school year, only 48% of third-grade students were reading at grade level.

“There were a lot of districts that lost a substantial amount of ground. And there were actually a couple of districts that improved over the pandemic,” said Tom Kane, faculty director of Harvard’s Center for Education Policy and Research.

Those helping to implement the science of reading instruction in Utah are hopeful the state will be able to get to 70% proficiency by 2027.

Librarians in Grand County, Summit County and Brigham City share which adult fiction and nonfiction titles were checked out most often in 2022.

Reading is a challenge for students across the country, especially after the pandemic.