Why kids can't read (and what we can do about it), with Kate Crist
Grammar Girl: For Writers and Language Lovers.
Mignon Fogarty, Inc.
4.5 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 6 March 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
1062. Did you know that 21% of U.S. adults struggle with basic literacy? In this eye-opening episode, literacy specialist Kate Crist talks about the literacy crisis in America, how reading is taught incorrectly in schools, and what we can do to fix it. She has real stories of students and adults overcoming reading struggles, the science behind learning to read, and practical advice for parents, educators, and anyone who wants to help.
Resource list
Literacy rates:
Why do we have these low rates of literacy?
- Two great films - The Truth About Reading [OFFICIAL TRAILER] [NOW STREAMING] and Right to Read
- Podcast = Sold a Story
How can I help the readers in my life?
- Family Guides from Seek Common Ground (what your kids should know at grade level)
- FULCRUM for advocacy resources
- To understand how we learn to read, this graphic guide cannot be beat: How We Read (written for adolescent students, it’s great for adults too)
- Tools to use at home: Reading Buddies, Toddlers Can Read, Learning Dynamics, How to Teach your Kid to Read in 100 easy lessons
- For older readers City Stories and this set of recommendations from the Literacy Architects (and if you want to get super nerdy, this article from Reading Rockets
- And if you have the money/are low-cost resources in your community: Get a literacy tutor.
What is phonics?
- Really, it's part of the science of reading ( body of interdisciplinary research about reading: studies done all over the globe for the last 5 decades. There is a preponderance of evidence to inform how to read and what instruction should look like) The Reading League has this cool definition guide.
- Phonics is part of foundational skills, which is only part of what kids need to learn to read. Check out:
- Early reading accelerator quick start guide
- This graphic from FULCRUM Or this from the AZ department of education give a visual for the full picture of what a reader needs to become a good reader.
🔗 Share your familect recording in a WhatsApp chat.
🔗 Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing courses.
🔗 Subscribe to the newsletter.
🔗 Take our advertising survey.
🔗 Get the edited transcript.
🔗 Get Grammar Girl books.
🔗 Join Grammarpalooza. Get ad-free and bonus episodes at Apple Podcasts or Subtext. Learn more about the difference.
| HOST: Mignon Fogarty
| VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475).
| Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network.
- Audio Engineer: Dan Feierabend
- Director of Podcast: Brannan Goetschius
- Advertising Operations Specialist: Morgan Christianson
- Marketing and Publicity Assistant: Davina Tomlin
- Digital Operations Specialist: Holly Hutchings
- Marketing and Video: Nat Hoopes
| Theme music by Catherine Rannus.
| Grammar Girl Social Media: YouTube. TikTok. Facebook.Threads. Instagram. LinkedIn. Mastodon. Bluesky.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Grammar Girl here. I'm In Jan Fogarty, and I am here with Kate Christ. Kate is a literacy |
| 0:10.8 | specialist. More than 20 years in education. She's been a classroom teacher, an instructional coach, |
| 0:17.2 | program coordinator. She's currently the director of Education 4500, where she works with |
| 0:22.8 | teachers and leaders around the U.S. to design and implement literacy programs. And she's |
| 0:29.3 | on the steering committee for the Project for Adolescent Literacy. Kate Christ, welcome to |
| 0:34.1 | the Grammar Girl podcast. Oh, thank you so much. I'm so delighted to be here. |
| 0:38.6 | I know. I'm excited to have you here because recently I heard this shocking statistic about literacy. |
| 0:45.6 | Something like 21% of U.S. adults are illiterate. And first I was shocked, but then I started wondering, |
| 0:53.9 | how is that even measured? |
| 0:55.6 | Like, what does that even mean? So can you sort of start us at the beginning there? |
| 1:00.0 | Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think shocking is a good way to start. That statistic should be shocking. |
| 1:06.3 | It's, you know, one of the richest countries in the world. And we have these really low rates of |
| 1:10.1 | literacy. And I think they have a huge impact. So there's sort of two ways we can talk about it. |
| 1:15.0 | One is how do we know? Like what are, like what are we using to measure? And the other is, |
| 1:19.8 | what does it mean for people functionally? So the 20% of illiteracy, so there's a few different |
| 1:26.5 | assessments that are used, sort of batch assessments |
| 1:28.8 | but they're, you know, samples that we can generalize from. They're large enough. |
| 1:34.9 | One of the most commonly used ones is called the Piac. We love our acronyms in education is the |
| 1:40.6 | program for the international assessment of adult competencies. |
| 1:44.8 | And that's where that 20%, 21% illiteracy rate comes from. |
| 1:48.2 | That 20% are people who read it about a third grade level or below. |
| 1:52.7 | And so that means, yeah, so that means like job applications, voter registration guides, medical information packets. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mignon Fogarty, Inc., and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Mignon Fogarty, Inc. and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.