ATLANTA — As a state, Georgia lawmakers have spent years prioritizing the ability of its students to read.
That culminated in a large bill in the 2026 legislative session sponsored by House Speaker Jon Burns.
But recent data from federal education agencies shows adults are lagging behind.
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Adult literacy in Georgia ranks low among its fellow states, according to the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.
The most recent data for Georgia shows that it is below the national average for literacy.
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Federal data shows that about one-fourth of Georgians read below what’s referred to as Level 1. NCES said that means adults in this group are at risk for difficulty using or understanding printed materials, and have trouble with more complicated vocabulary.
More directly, NCES said adults below Level 1 “may be functionally illiterate.”
Level 2 adults can read but still struggle to perform tasks with text-based information.
At the high range of literacy, Level 3, adults are proficient and can understand, interpret and put together information from what they read to use in multiple ways.
The average scale score for Georgia was 260 as of 2017. Across the United States, NCES said literacy and numeracy scores for adult Americans decreased through 2023.
For Georgia students, the state’s Reading Readiness scores show the following stats for reading, as of the 2024-2025 school year:
- Grade 3: 65% of students read at or above grade level
- Grade 4: 57% of students read at or above grade level
- Grade 5: 71% of students read at or above grade level
- Grade 6: 59% of students read at or above grade level
- Grade 7: 69% of students read at or above grade level
- Grade 8: 68% of students read at or above grade level
- American Literature: 67% of students read at or above grade level
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