While 77 percent of students agree that summer reading will help them, 20 percent report reading no books during the summer.
The finding is part of Scholastic’s biennial nationally representative survey of children ages 17 and younger and their parents. Thirty-two percent of children ages 15 to 17 said they read no books over the summer, compared with 22 percent in 2016. The number of 9- to 11-year-olds who do not read doubled, from 7 percent to 14 percent.
Older students also reported less reading than younger ones. Students in the 6 to 8 age group read an average of 19 books over the summer, while those 15 to 17 reported reading only two on average.