Students are failing to reach key reading benchmarks by fourth grade, setting them up for failure later in high school and life, according to a new report that suggested one of the solutions is integrating early learning and the first grades of elementary school.
An incredible 83 percent of students from poor families, and 67 percent of all students, failed to reach proficiency in reading by fourth grade, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation report. This failure is about more than low scores on fourth-grade tests.
“Failure to read proficiently is linked to higher rates of school dropout, which suppresses individual earning potential as well as the nation’s competitiveness and general productivity.” – Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters, 5/18/10.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation lays out a plan to address the problem, and early learning plays a key role.
“They need to be present at school because they can’t learn if they aren’t there. And they need to have high quality learning opportunities, beginning at birth and continuing in school and during out-of-school time, including summers, in order to sustain learning gains and not lose ground. For millions of American kids, these conditions are not met.” Early Warning. “The system we envision would promote a widely shared focus on the target results of: children born healthy; children healthy, thriving, and developing on track (no untreated health conditions or avoidable developmental delays), from birth through third grade and beyond; children developmentally ready (cognitively, socially, physically, and emotionally) to succeed in school at the time of school entry…”
The good news is Thrive by Five Washington is already working on solutions highlighted in the report. For example, Thrive by Five’s Culture of Literacy initiative is based on the idea that literacy begins in infancy. Plus, Thrive regularly supports the role of parents as their children’s first teachers.
But, the report makes it clear there is a lot of work left. So, the Annie E. Casey Foundation is launching a ten-year campaign to boost reading proficiency.
“…Our 10-year goals are to (1) “close the gap” between the children of low-income rural and urban families and their higher-income counterparts; (2) increase by 50% the number and proportion of students who are grade-level proficient readers by the end of third grade; and (3) “raise the bar” so that these readers truly are proficient by the rigorous standards that will put them on track to graduate from high school and to compete with the rest of the world.”
Check out the plan and entire report here.