A new RAND Corporation survey of nearly 1,600 middle and high school English teachers reveals that about 90% of these teachers assign at least one book and nearly 60% assign three or more books throughout the school year, according to a Chalkbeat article. Teachers assigned an average of four full books in secondary grades.
The research comes during a national debate about whether students are reading enough full books.
Another finding: Teachers in lower-income schools are less likely to assign more than two books for the year than those working in wealthier schools. Teachers of students with disabilities or multilingual students were less likely to assign fewer full books.
Reading entire novels might be one of many school activities influenced by socioeconomic circumstances, the survey suggests.
What was once a standard of high school English class — reading novel — now perhaps plays a only a supporting role now, says Ashley Woo, a RAND researcher and the report’s author.
One aspect of the debate is whether many students have the stamina or attention span to read a full book, in an era of short-form communication. An emphasis on reading short passages from novels or short stories is also debated. No definitive evidence exists that English class should revolve around reading whole novels or a prescribed number of books a year.
RAND’s 2025 survey suggested a possible connection between reading entire books and curriculums. Teachers who favored more on publisher-developed curriculums taught fewer whole books than teachers who used lessons they developed or that their schools developed. This might be because publisher-developed material often includes excerpts instead of full books, says Woo.
The survey also involved more than 1,900 elementary educators. Nearly 20% of teachers in grades K-2 assigned no books, while 50% reported assigning 20 or more books, most likely shorter ones intended for early readers. For teachers in grades 3-5, 14% reported assigning no books, 22% reported assigning three to four, and 20% reported assigning five to nine. Reading full books didn’t “crowd out” time spent on early literacy skills, according to elementary teachers surveyed.
The data indicates “a lot of teachers are not prioritizing full book reading in elementary classrooms at all,” Woo says.
Chalkbeat
