The Influence of Reading Motivation on African American and Hispanic High School Students’ Reading

African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to enter high school with literacy skills three years behind Caucasian students (Reardon et al., 2012). Results from the National Report Card show that as of 2017, there is a significant reading gap between Hispanics and Caucasians in the eighth and twelfth grades. The reading gap is even larger between African Americans and Caucasian students in the eight and twelfth grades. Motivation could be a key component for improving low reading levels in adolescent readers (Troyer, 2017).