Student Habits

School Administrator, June, 1998

The National Center for Education Statistics has issued a one-page "Indicator of the Month" about reading and writing habits of students.

The succinct summary addresses research that shows reading ability is correlated positively with the extent to which students read recreationally.

Among the findings:

* Independent reading and writing habits have remained relatively stable across all age groups since 1984;

* A greater number of 9-year-olds than 13-and 17-year-olds reported reading for fun almost every day over a recent 10-year period; and

* Students at all three age levels who reported reading for fun at least once a week had higher average reading proficiency scores than those who reported never or hardly ever reading for fun.