This may seem reasonable, but Shanahan says it doesn’t help anyone and even leads teachers to forgo reading altogether. “In social studies and science, and these days, even in English classes,” he said in an interview, “either teachers don’t give any readings or they read the texts to students.” Struggling readers do not have the opportunity – nor the tools – to tackle complex documents on their own.
Instead, Shanahan believes all students should read grade-level texts together, with teachers providing more support to those who need it.
“What I recommend is educational differentiation,” he said during our interview. “Everyone will have the same learning goal: We will all learn to read the fourth grade text. I might teach a lesson to the whole class, then let some children move on to independent work while others get more help. Perhaps those who didn’t understand the text reread the text with my support. By the end, more students will have achieved the learning goal – and tomorrow the whole class can tackle another text.”
27 different ways
Shanahan’s approach doesn’t mean throwing kids in the deep end without help. Her book presents a toolbox of strategies for tackling difficult texts, such as searching for unfamiliar vocabulary, rereading confusing passages, or breaking down long sentences. “There are 27 different ways you can switch to successful reading,” he said, and he hopes future researchers will discover many more.
He is skeptical about training students in skills such as identifying the main idea or making inferences. “We treated the test questions like a skill,” he said. “It doesn’t work.”
There is widespread frustration with deteriorating reading scores in the United States, particularly among middle school students. (Thirty-nine percent of eighth graders cannot achieve the lowest of three achievement levels, called “core,” according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.) But there is little agreement among reading advocates on how to solve the problem. Some argue that what children need most of all is more knowledge to grasp unfamiliar ideas in a new reading passage, but Shanahan argues that basic knowledge will not be sufficient or as powerful as explicit comprehension instruction. Other reading experts agree. Nonie Lesaux, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education who specializes in literacy in her own academic work, supported Shanahan’s argument in an October 2025 online discussion about the new book.
Shanahan is very convincing in pointing out that there is no strong experimental evidence that reading scores increase more when students read text at their individual level. In contrast, a 2024 analysis found that the most effective schools are those that keep instruction at grade level. Shanahan acknowledges, however, that more research is needed to identify which comprehension strategies work best for which students and under which circumstances.
Vygotsky’s misunderstanding
Teachers often cite Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s “zone of proximal development” to justify giving students books that are neither too easy nor too difficult. But Shanahan says this is a misunderstanding of Vygotsky’s work.
Vygotsky believed that teachers should guide students to learn difficult things that they cannot yet do on their own, he said.
He offers an analogy: a mother teaching her child to tie his shoes. First, she demonstrates by recounting the steps out loud. Then the child takes one step and completes the rest. Over time, the mother gradually lets go of control and the child ties a knot himself. “Leveled reading,” Shanahan said, “is like saying, ‘Why not just buy Velcro?’ This is a real teaching. “Boys and girls, you don’t know how to ride a bike yet, but I’m going to make sure you do when we’re done. » »
Shanahan’s critique of reading instruction applies primarily from second grade onwards, once children have learned to read and are focused on understanding what they read. In kindergarten and first grade, when children are still learning phonics and how to decode words on the page, the research evidence against small-group teaching with texts at different levels is not as strong, he said.
First learning to read – to decode – is important. Shanahan says there are rare exceptions to teaching all children at grade level.
“If a fifth grader still can’t read,” Shanahan said, “I wouldn’t make them read a fifth grade text.” This child may need separate instruction from a reading specialist.
Advanced readers, meanwhile, can be challenged in other ways, Shanahan suggests, through independent reading time, moving directly to higher-level reading lessons, or exploring complex ideas in grade-level texts.
The role of AI — and parents
Artificial intelligence is increasingly used to rewrite texts for different difficulty levels. Shanahan is skeptical of this approach. Simpler texts, whether written by humans or generated by AI, do not teach students to improve their reading skills, he says.
Still, he’s intrigued by the idea of using AI to help students “climb the stairs” by instantly changing a single text to suit a range of reading levels, such as third, fifth and seventh grade levels, and having students read them in rapid succession. Whether this improves understanding is still unclear and needs to be investigated.
AI could be very useful to teachers, Shanahan suspects, to help them point out a sentence or passage that tends to confuse students or cause them to stumble. The teacher can then address these common difficulties in class.
Shanahan worries about what’s happening outside of school: Kids aren’t reading much.
He urges parents to let their children read what they like – whether above or below their level – but to set consistent expectations. “Nagging may not be effective,” he said. “But you can be specific: ‘After dinner on Thursday, read the first chapter. When you’re done, we’ll talk about it, and then you can play a computer game or use your phone.'”
Too often, he says, parents back down when children resist. “They’re the kids. We’re the adults,” Shanahan said. “We are responsible. Let’s step up and do what’s right for them.”
