The results of the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation’s report card, were released on January 29, and reading scores for U.S. students have dropped to a worrying new low. In 2024, 31% of fourth graders scored above the NAEP’s proficient standard, compared with 33% of fourth graders in 2022 and 35% in 2019, the year prior to the Covid-19 disruptions. Eighth graders’ scores were also lower, with only 30% of students performing at or above the proficient level and 33% of eighth grade students performing below the basic level—the largest percentage since the assessment began in 1992.
This literacy crisis, exacerbated by such factors as socioeconomic disparities and the effects of the pandemic, set off alarm bells at least a decade ago, spurring policymakers, school districts, and educators nationwide to seek out the best teaching methods and tools to help struggling readers succeed. Since 2013, 40 states plus the District of Columbia have passed legislation related to evidence-based reading instruction, which is informed by the body of research known as the science of reading. In 2024 alone, at least 35 such literacy bills were passed in 25 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Most states now mandate a structured literacy approach rooted in the science of reading that explicitly and systematically teaches foundational skills like phonics and more advanced literacy skills like comprehension. The International Dyslexia Association coined the term “structured literacy” in 2014 to differentiate it from other widely adopted reading instruction approaches such as whole language and balanced literacy, which it notes “do not teach oral and written language skills in an explicit, systematic manner.”
Foregrounding dyslexia
Parents of students with dyslexia have largely led the recent push toward evidence-based reading instruction in schools because it has been proven to be the most effective way to teach their kids. Those parents are a sizable group: according to stats from the International Dyslexia Association and the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, dyslexia affects 15%–20% of the overall population and 80%–90% of those with learning disabilities. IDA defines dyslexia as a language-based learning disability with symptoms that include difficulties with such language skills as reading, spelling, and writing. “Every child who is experiencing dyslexia to any degree needs a very structured, sequential, multisensory way of learning language taught by an individual who has had a fair amount of training,” says Maria Paluselli, CEO at Provident Charter School, a public school in Pittsburgh that is designed to educate students who have dyslexia and other struggling readers.
At Provident, in addition to personalized interventions using structured literacy programs like the Wilson Reading System, “so much of what we do is trying to get our students using technology to work in their favor,” Paluselli says. She points to a plethora of widely available apps and extensions—including text to speech, speech to text, captioning and subtitles, audiobooks, and Bookshare (a library of audiobooks and e-books with assistive reading features)—that can be extremely helpful for dyslexic students.
The font factor
One of the most common assistive technologies available to help struggling readers is the modification of digital document styles enabling students to select fonts, spacing, colors, and other elements that work best for them. Dyslexia-friendly fonts expand these options. The Dyslexie font, created by dyslexic Dutch graphic designer Christian Boer in 2008, features subtly adjusted letter shapes that have heavier bottoms and larger openings, some slanted letters, and increased spacing between letters. Boer used his own experience with dyslexia—and feedback from others with the disability—to draft the typeface as his senior thesis project at the Utrecht Art Academy. “I made the openings bigger on the e and c so it’s easier to distinguish between the letters, and I made the capital letters bolder,” he says. “I fine-tuned the typeface until it wasn’t distracting to read anymore. And I realized it was not only working for me but others had the same benefit.”
Boer later launched the font to a wider audience via Dyslexiefont.com, where it is available for purchase and download and where people can find more information about dyslexia. Companies and organizations such as Shell and the Dutch government and Boer’s local police force offer Dyslexie to their employees. And schools can purchase the font for a significantly reduced fee. But 80% of Boer’s more than 300,000 clients are home users.
Boer says he never envisioned heading a big commercial enterprise: “When I made it, I thought I was one of the 100 in the Netherlands with dyslexia. It is by the power of people with dyslexia that it is all over the world now.”
That growth allows Boer to be a bigger advocate for inclusion. “I’m a social company,” he says. “So what I earn goes into the effort to make dyslexia more known—not the typeface, but information about neurodiversity.”
The open-source font OpenDyslexic shares some similarities with Dyslexie. It consists of letters with heavier-looking bottoms to ground the letters and indicate direction, and has wider spacing in between letters. Though both fonts have their fans, some experts are not convinced of their efficacy. Mary Wennersten, IDA’s director of educator preparation program accreditation, says her organization does not recommend specific fonts, formats, or other visual aids, and points to research articles published in the Annals of Dyslexia that show Dyslexie and OpenDyslexic do not improve dyslexic students’ reading rate or accuracy.
Maria Paluselli
“Every child who is experiencing dyslexia to any degree needs a very structured, sequential, multisensory way of learning language.”
Whether or not these fonts boost reading skills, readers and educators who have had positive experiences with them have expressed their gratitude for having inclusive format options. And in an effort to provide this kind of equity and accessibility to readers,
several children’s publishers have adopted Dyslexie and OpenDyslexic for various titles. The bestselling 12-volume Here’s Hank! series of chapter books, cowritten by actor Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver, follows dyslexic second grader Hank Zipzer and is inspired by Winkler’s own childhood reading difficulties. “From my experience being dyslexic, I always felt as though I was on the outside looking in,” Winkler told PW in 2019. “That’s part of Hank Zipzer’s story. I’ve discovered that if you write the truth about life, with authenticity, you’re apt to hear readers say, ‘How do you know me so well?’ And to an author, that is beyond gratifying.”
Published by Penguin Workshop between 2014 and 2019, the books were the first in the U.S. to be set in Boer’s Dyslexie font. More recently, Aaron Slater, Illustrator (2021), part of Andrea Beatty’s Questioneers picture book series from Abrams, in which a boy with dyslexia discovers his own special way to tell stories, uses Dyslexie.
At Philomel, VP and publisher Jill Santopolo published the 2019 picture book Just Ask! by Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor in the OpenDyslexic font. The story features a group of children asking each other about different challenges they may face, including one child who talks about having dyslexia. “When we were considering what would visually make sense for this book, our brilliant senior art director and designer Ellice Lee suggested that we might try OpenDyslexic,” Santopolo says. “It looked great, and we also loved that it would make the book more accessible to readers who could really associate themselves with this character.”
A couple of years later, California governor Gavin Newsom, who has spoken openly about his dyslexia and learning challenges that were diagnosed in childhood, pitched a project. “When Governor Newsom came to us with Ben and Emma’s Big Hit, a picture book about two characters who have dyslexia, OpenDyslexic was the only font that we talked about using,” Santopolo says. “We felt that if we’re creating a book for a target audience, we should make it as easy as possible for them to access this book.”
Though Dyslexie and OpenDyslexic are perhaps the best known, they are not the only dyslexia-friendly fonts available. The American Psychological Association’s Magination Press imprint chose the EasyReading font for its 2021 picture book Brilliant Bea by Shaina Rudolph and Mary Vukadinovich, illustrated by Fiona Lee, for example. And Scottish publisher Barrington Stoke has had great success publishing its entire catalog in the dyslexia-friendly font it designed in-house, which U.S. readers can now find in Union Square & Co.’s Everyone Can Be a Reader series, spearheaded by executive editor Suzy Capozzi. (See “With Inclusive Design, ‘Everyone Can Be a Reader,’ ” p. 32.)
Apart from specialized fonts, Wennersten at IDA notes that the sans serif fonts Arial and Verdana are sometimes cited as helpful “because of their clarity and simplicity.” She adds, “Some students find Comic Sans easier to read due to its informal, easy-to-follow design.” But she emphasizes that individual preferences are the ultimate guide when considering fonts. “It may be beneficial to offer multiple font options and allow students to choose what works best for them. Additionally, ensuring adequate line spacing, a high contrast between text and background, and breaking up content into smaller sections can further enhance readability.”
The increased white space and more distinct contrast found in large-print books can benefit all students, regardless of reading level, according to new research. A nationwide study conducted by educational nonprofit Project Tomorrow on behalf of Thorndike Press, Gale’s large-print publisher, shows that large-print books improved students’ reading skills, engagement, and enjoyment. Approximately 1,500 students in grades four through 12 and 56 teachers and librarians from 13 diverse schools participated in the study during the 2023–2024 school year.
Among the key findings about the use of large-print texts in the classroom: 87% of teachers agreed that large print had a positive impact on their students’ reading success; 77% of teachers reported increases in students’ reading comprehension for below-grade-level readers; teachers noticed increased student participation in classroom readaloud activities (74% for below-grade-level readers); and according to 87% of teachers, below-grade-level readers demonstrated increased confidence in their reading abilities.
No matter which materials, accommodations, or assistive technologies educators choose to use, their mission to support students who need the most reading help remains a critical one. Another distressing finding within the NAEP data illustrates that the achievement gap between higher- and lower-performing students grew in 2024 and has been widening steadily for more than a decade. And all this concerning news has landed amid great uncertainty regarding federal policy and funding for K–12 schools and deepening cultural divides over education at the state and district levels. “It is a crisis,” says Capozzi at Union Square & Co., “and the reality is that all of this disproportionately affects students with varying reading level abilities. I’m really glad to be working on these books.”
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