According to Newsweek Magazine, “principals and teachers are increasingly concerned about what they call the “fourth grade slump”. Around the country, students are demonstrating a declining interest in reading and a gradual disengagement from school.
What can be causing this? There isn’t any specific data but teachers indicate that students are being distracted by viedeogames, after-school activities and the switch from learning to read to reading to learn.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading schools improve for the early grades but flatten out by the fourth grade.
In a 2006 survey by Scholastic Inc. 40% of children between the ages of 5 and 8 read everyday. By the fourth grade, the rate declined to 29%.