Stop blaming immigration for low U.S. reading scores, top psychologist says. The problem is actually devices giving easy access to social media

In the wake of new data showing a “learning recession” in the U.S. for more than a decade, a top psychologist is refuting claims that immigration is to blame—and warning technology in the classroom is the true culprit.

Last year, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor, claimed immigration was the reason behind most of America’s societal woes.

“If you subtract immigration out of test scores, all of a sudden our test scores skyrocket,” he said. “Issue after issue we talk about these things as if they just happen to us. The schools just suddenly fail. Violent crime just suddenly explodes. The deficit just suddenly skyrockets. These are a result of social policy choices that we made through immigration.”

According to Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World, a recent bath of negative test scores stoked this sentiment. 

The latest data point came from Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research and Stanford University’s Educational Opportunity Project, which released the nation’s Education Scorecard this month showing drops in reading and math achievement beginning in 2013. From 2015 to 2025, average reading scores fell by nearly a grade level, showing a decline in almost every state. When Twenge posted about the scores on social media, her replies showed several users attributing the trend to an influx of immigrants in the U.S.

But in a recent Substack post, she pointed out Census data shows the proportion of foreign-born children under 18 in the U.S. ticked up from 3.37% in........

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