Skills' Gaps for Online Reading Linked to Family Income

Long a cause for alarm, the gap in reading skills between poor students and their more affluent peers is well-established and worsening, researchers say. Now, there is more bad news: The real magnitude of that reading achievement gap may be greater than previously believed, because educators and researchers have not adequately accounted for the different skills that are required to successfully read online, as opposed to in print. That is the gist of a new study, conducted by Donald J. Leu of the University of Connecticut, which found "a large and significant achievement gap, based on income inequality, in an important new area for learning—the ability to read on the Internet to learn information," according to a news release from the university.