This may seem sensible, but Shanahan says it’s not helping anyone and is even leading teachers to do away with reading altogether. “In social studies and science, and today, even in English classes,” he said in an interview, “teachers either don’t assign any reading or they read the texts to the students.” Struggling readers don’t have the opportunity (or the tools) to tackle complex material on their own.
Instead, Shanahan believes that all students should read grade-level texts together, and that teachers should provide more support to those who need it.
“What I recommend is differentiation in instruction,” he said in our interview. “Everyone will have the same instructional goal: We are all going to learn to read the fourth-grade text. I could teach a lesson to the whole class and then let some kids move on to independent work while others get more help. Maybe those who didn’t understand it will read the text again with my support. In the end, more students will have met the learning goal, and tomorrow the whole class can study another text.”
27 different ways
Shanahan’s approach doesn’t mean throwing children into the abyss without help. His book describes a toolbox of strategies for tackling difficult texts, such as looking up unknown vocabulary, rereading confusing passages, or breaking up long sentences. “You can achieve successful reading in 27 different ways,” he said, and he hopes future researchers will discover many more.
He is skeptical about instructing students in skills such as identifying the main idea or making inferences. “We’ve treated test questions like skill,” he said. “That doesn’t work.”
There is widespread frustration about the deterioration of American reading achievementespecially among high school students. (Thirty-nine percent of eighth grade students cannot reach the lowest of three achievement levels, called “basic,” on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.) But there is little agreement among reading advocates about how to fix the problem. Some maintain that what children primarily need is more knowledge to capture unknown ideas in a new reading passage, but Shanahan stated that prior knowledge will not be sufficient or as powerful as explicit comprehension instruction. Other reading experts agree. Nonie Lesaux, a dean at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who specializes in literacy in her own academic work, supported Shanahan’s argument in a October 2025 online discussion about the new book.
Shanahan is very persuasive in pointing out that there is no solid experimental evidence to show that reading achievement increases more when students read a text at their individual level. In contrast, a 2024 analysis found that the more effective schools They are those who maintain instruction at grade level. Still, Shanahan acknowledges that more research is needed to determine which comprehension strategies work best for which students and under what circumstances.
Misunderstanding Vygotsky
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 misinterpretation of Vygotsky’s work.
Vygotsky believed that teachers should guide students to learn challenging things that they cannot yet do on their own, he said.
He offers an analogy: a mother teaching her son to tie his shoes. At first, he demonstrates this while narrating the steps out loud. Then the child takes one step and finishes the rest. Over time, the mother gradually releases control and the child makes a bun on his own. “Level reading,” Shanahan said, “is like saying, ‘Why don’t we use Velcro?’ This is a true teaching. “Boys and girls, you don’t know how to ride a bike yet, but I’ll make sure you do when we’re done.” “
Shanahan’s critique of reading instruction applies primarily beginning in second grade, after children learn to read and focus 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 instruction with different level texts is not as strong, she said.
Learning to read first (decode) is important. Shanahan says there are rare exceptions to teaching all children at grade level.
“If a fifth-grade child doesn’t know how to read yet,” Shanahan said, “I wouldn’t force that child to read a fifth-grade text.” That child may need separate instruction from a reading specialist.
Meanwhile, advanced readers can be challenged in other ways, Shanahan suggests, through independent reading time, jumping into higher-grade reading classes, or exploring complex ideas within grade-level texts.
The role of AI and parents
Artificial intelligence is increasingly used to rewrite texts of different levels of difficulty. Shanahan is skeptical of that approach. The simplest texts, whether written by humans or generated by AI, do not teach students to improve their reading skills, he said.
Still, he is intrigued by the idea of using AI to help students “climb ladders” by instantly modifying a single text to a variety of reading levels—say, third-, fifth-, and seventh-grade levels—and having students read them in rapid succession. It is still unknown and needs to be studied if this improves understanding.
Shanahan suspects that AI could be a big help to teachers, helping them point out a phrase or passage that tends to confuse students or trip them up. The teacher can then address those common difficulties in class.
Shanahan worries about what happens outside of school: Kids don’t read much.
He urges parents to let their children read what they like, regardless of whether it is above or below their level, but setting consistent expectations. “Fighting 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 push back 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.”
