Amid a deepening literacy crisis, there’s been a focus on how to close the achievement gap, but Natalie Wexler sees the key problem undermining the American educational system a little differently.

It seems like an obvious statement: It’s easier for readers to understand a text they already know something about. But this commonsense idea, backed by research, has big implications for reading ...

The purpose of going to school is to learn, but students may find certain topics difficult to understand if they don't have the necessary background knowledge. This is one of the conclusions of a ...

A remarkable long-term study by University of Virginia researchers led by David Grissmer demonstrates unusually robust and beneficial effects on reading achievement among students in schools that ...

Our testing system is based on the idea that reading comprehension can be measured independently of what kids know, but science indicates otherwise. The American education system rests in large part ...

Editor’s Note: Click on the words highlighted in this story to pull up a definition and short research summary. Reading comprehension is a complex endeavor. It’s heavily dependent on learning new ...

In classrooms across the country, teachers are rethinking how students build reading comprehension — not just how they decode words, but how they make meaning from text. That shift is part of a larger ...

There’s been a lot of concern about phonics instruction in recent months, sparked by an illuminating new audio documentary. But there’s another aspect of reading—comprehension—that is equally crucial, ...