When the National Assessment of Educational Progress in Reading (NAEP) results are published biennially, journalists and policymakers focus on the approximately third of a fourth-grade cohort who fail to attain the basic standard in reading comprehension. A legitimate concern is that these students do not have the literacy levels required for full participation in the global digital world of the 21st century. However, the attributions
and claims of their literacy levels go far beyond this concern. . .