While you can certainly argue that some texts have more substance to them than these literary works, you cannot deny that most texts have worse prose than the books.
> The quality of most text msgs is higher than what passes for “quality literature” in many lit classrooms.
First: Your HS kids hang out with a different crowd than my HS kids :-)
Second: This is about reading ability (comprehension, etc), not literature. Whether the quality of a text message is superior/inferior to whatever they use in literature classes is irrelevant.
Texting is unironically a better use of time than reading infinite jest, or gravities rainbow, etc.