- Utah first lady Abby Cox joins educators & literacy experts for teen reading "intervention."
- Cox said parents, relatives and businesses can play key roles in helping Utah kids find joy in reading.
- Literacy experts assert literacy is within reach of almost every Utah teen struggling to read.
Wednesday is Nicole Baun’s birthday — and the South Jordan teen’s birthday wish list makes her a bit of an adolescent outlier: Books, and then more books.
“I just like being transported to a new world,” said the 15-year-old bibliophile, whose book preference is a well-paced thriller.
But for most American teens growing up amid today’s crowded digital options — cellphones, PlayStations, TikTok — cracking open a book or even reading the day’s headlines isn’t happening much in 2026.
Meanwhile, last week’s release of the Nation’s Report Card revealed that reading proficiency was stagnating among 13-year-old American students.
And a similar “report card” from 2024 suggested that while Utah eighth grade students were typically reading at levels higher than their national counterparts, their average reading score was still lower than Utah eighth-graders in 2022.
Much of the local and national focus is on early literacy — kindergarten through third grade. But it’s evident that many teens in Utah and beyond are also struggling with reading.
Utah first lady Abby Cox joined local educators and business leaders Wednesday at the Ken Garff Corporate Office in Salt Lake City for an “adolescent reading intervention.”
The gathering included a teen literacy call to action from Cox — along with a group discussion directed by Shantell Blake, Vice President of Education and Outreach at the Utah-based foundational literacy program organization Reading Horizons.
Utah’s first lady: A teen literacy call to action
Cox’s message Wednesday was a mix of optimism and reality.
Yes, she said, policy makers, educators, businesses and parents are recognizing reading challenges. things are happening to remedy challenges. Those are all positives.
But, she added, “We’re not in a good space right now. We’re not in the best place that we can be. We’re a little ahead of the national average, we always have been. But that still isn’t great.”
Utah lawmakers, she added, are taking ownership of literacy in schools — directing tens of millions of state funds for literacy coaches and other reading strategies. And the state’s new bell-to-bell school cellphone prohibition will help keep teens focused on their teachers and peers — and away from their phones.
But boosting adolescent literacy goes beyond classrooms, cellphone restrictions and legislation, said Cox. “It’s a community issue, and we’ve all got to come together and put in the effort.
“Families have to start reading again. Adults have to start reading again. Everybody has to make sure that this is a priority. This is a community issue; it has to have a community solution.”
Adolescents need reading ‘models’
The first lady also talked adolescent literacy on Wednesday with the Deseret News.
Once again, Cox spoke of digital devices getting in the way of teens picking up books — while also undermining their reading skills.
Adolescents, she added, need to see others reading. They need examples within their own homes. “As parents, family members, grandparents, aunts and uncles — we’ve got to start reading. We’ve got to start modeling the behavior that we want to see in our young people.”
Meanwhile, communities have to take ownership of early and adolescent literacy, said Cox.
“If I own a business, I can adopt a school. You can make sure that there’s books in that school. You can make sure there are books in your neighborhood. You can reach out to your libraries and make sure that there are books available in your libraries.”
Utah businesses can also support youth literacy by allowing employees time-off to volunteer at schools, Cox added.
“There are a lot of kiddos that are not getting read to or that don’t have the opportunity to read with somebody in a school. There are a lot of households that don’t even have a book in them.”
So what are the first lady’s book picks for Utah teens?
The first lady said the historical fiction novel “The Book Thief” is a favorite in the Cox home.
“And also anything by our local authors,” Cox said. “Jennifer Nielsen is a great author that has just incredible books that are really engaging about history and different things. And Brandon Sanderson, of course, is a great author who is from Utah, but known worldwide.”
Offering adolescents reading opportunities
Wednesday’s adolescent reading intervention included insight and direction from Reading Horizons literacy experts.
“Our mission,” Reading Horizons CEO Tyson Smith told the Deseret News, “is to eradicate illiteracy. … It’s a societal ill that in our country shouldn’t be a thing.”
The organization’s recent “Literacy in Transition” report surveyed more than 2,600 educators across the country. They asked what they are seeing — and why many middle and high school students are struggling with reading.
A vast majority of secondary educators say at least a quarter of their students are reading below grade level.
“When asked why, over half point to the same root cause: missing foundational skills,” said Blake in a Reading Horizons video aired prior to her discussion with education.
“Not motivation, not effort, (but) an instructional gap that has followed students into middle school and beyond.
“At the same time, 84% of those educators believe older students can still catch up with the right instruction. The belief is there. The challenge is execution.”
Improving reading outcomes for older students, added Blake, comes down to three things.
First, educators have to understand the actual learning gap — one that’s absent of assumptions or broad categorizations.
Second, educators must align instruction to that gap. For many students, that means addressing foundational skills such as decoding, fluency, and the structure of language.
“And third, we have to deliver that instruction in a way that works in the secondary classroom,” said Blake. “It has to be efficient, targeted, and age-appropriate — so students are learning with dignity.”
Teaching kids of all ages to read goes beyond simply surrounding them with books, said Blake during Wednesday’s discussion with educators.
Literacy is not a natural process, she explained. The brain is not designed to read. It’s wired for speech and language. So in order to learn to read, the brain must be repurposed and connected to “language centers.”
“That connection — those pathways — are established through instruction and practice. … If (students) do not have that instruction, and those pathways are inefficient, they will struggle for their entire educational career.”
Potential has never been a literacy barrier for adolescents, asserted Blake. And proper instruction offers learning opportunities.
“And that’s exciting, because as teachers and as leaders, we can do something about this,” she said. “If we provide the right instruction that is research-informed and evidence-based and targeted to (adolescents’) needs, we will close those gaps.
“It may be slow steps, but we can do it.”