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Early Warning!
Why Reading by the End o Third Grade Matters
A KIDS COUNT Special Report rom the Annie E. Casey Foundation
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Early Warning!
Why Reading by the End o Third Grade Matters
A KIDS COUNT Special Report rom the Annie E. Casey Foundation
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| Early Warning! Wh red b the Ed of Thd gde Mttes
2010 Annie E. Casey Foundation
701 St. Paul Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
www.aec.org
Permission to copy, disseminate, or
otherwise use inormation rom this
Special Reportis granted as long as
appropriate acknowledgment is gien.
Designed by KINETIK
www.kinetikcom.com
State-leel data proided
by Population Reerence
Bureau and Child Trends.
Data compiled by Population
Reerence Bureau.
www.prb.org
Photography Susie Fitzhugh
and Carol Highsmith.
Printed and bound in the United
States o America on recycled paper
using soy-based inks.
The 2010 KIDS COUNT Special Report
can be iewed, downloaded, or ordered
on the Internet at www.kidscount.org.
This report was researched and written by
Leila Fiester in consultation with Ralph Smith,
Executive Vice President o the Annie E. Casey
Foundation. Expert advice on content came rom
many people within and outside the Foundation,including Doug Nelson, Bruno Manno (now
with the Walton Family Foundation), Cindy Guy,
Laura Beavers and Florencia Gutierrez (who also
provided data expertise), Tony Cipollone, Jessy
Donaldson, Simran Noor, Mike Laracy, Lisa
Kane, Lisa Klein, Hedy Chang, Ruby Takanishi,
Fasaha Traylor, Ann Segal, Lisbeth Schorr,
Frank Farrow, Jeanne Jehl, Lisa Roy, Marty
Blank, Kati Haycock, Gina Adams, Terry
Meersman, Charlie Bruner, Jane Quinn,
Elizabeth Burke Bryant, Catherine Walsh, B.J.
Walker, Diane Grigsby Jackson, Erica Okezie-
Phillips, Susan Notkin, Gail Meister, Ron
Haskins, Shelley Waters Boots, Ruth Mayden,
Paula Dressel, Yolie Flores, and Sheila Byrd.
Our colleagues at Casey Family Services also
provided valuable inormation and insights,
including Ray Torres, Joy Duva, Lauren Frey,
Diane Kindler, and Eliot Brenner. Cheryl
McAee and Jan Goudreau tracked down
countless research reports, oten on a moments
notice. Connie Dykstra managed the production
process with grace and patience, while Dana
Vickers Shelley provided leadership on the
communications side.
Acknowledgments
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4 Introduction
8 ReadingProficientlybytheEnd
ofThirdGradeMattersaLot
14 SeveralMajorFactorsUndermine
Grade-LevelReadingProficiency
22 AmericaCanSolvetheCrisisin
Grade-LevelReadingProficiency
40 ACalltoAction
42 Indicators
56 Endnotes
60 AbouttheAnnieE.Casey
FoundationandKIDSCOUNT
Contents
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The relatie decline o American education is
untenable or our economy, unsustainable or our
democracy, and unacceptable or our children,
and we cannot aord to let it continue.
President Barack Obama
March 9, 2009
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Oer the past decade, Americans hae
become increasingly concerned about the
high numbersand costso high
school dropouts. In 2007, nearly 6.2 million
young people (16% o the 1624 age group)
were high school dropouts.1 Every student
who does not complete high school costs oursociety an estimated $260,000 in lost
earnings, taxes, and productivity.2 High
school dropouts also are more likely than
those who graduate to be arrested or have a
child while still a teenager,3 both o which
incur additional nancial and social costs.
Behind these statistics, as one military
expert notes, lies a demographic surprise:
The current pool o qualied high school
graduates is neither large enough nor skilled
enough to supply our nations workorce,
higher education, leadership, and national
security needs.
In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson
supported the Head Start program as an
action taken in the national deense because
too many young Americans could not pass
the militarys basic skills entrance test.
We are at a similar point today: An estimated
75% o Americans aged 17 to 24 cannot
join the U.S. military26 million young
Americansmost oten because they are
poorly educated, involved in crime, or
physically unt, according to a report by
Mission: Readiness.4 In an increasingly
global and technological economy, employ-ers struggle to nd enough educated,
competent, and accountable workers. And
community colleges and other institutions
o higher education spend considerable time
and resources on remedial coursework or
students who simply are not prepared or
post-secondary education despite having a
high school diploma.
Growing awareness o these realities
has produced a common sense consensus
around the need to mobilize around and
invest in dropout prevention. But the
process o dropping out begins long beore a
child gets to high school. It stems rom loss
o interest and motivation in middle school,
oten triggered by retention in grade and the
struggle to keep up academically. A major
cause o retention is ailure to master the
knowledge and content needed to progress
Introduction
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Below proicient Below Basic
Moderate- and Moderate- andall low-incoMe high-incoMe all low-incoMe high-incoMe
geographic area1 students students2 students students students2 students
t 67 83 55 33 49 20
c 71 85 55 39 54 22
sbb 62 81 52 28 47 19
t 71 83 59 35 48 22
r 67 81 58 31 45 21
1 Geographic areas are based on U.S. Census data describing proximity to an urbanized area (a densely
settled core with densely settled surrounding areas), using our categories (City, Suburb, Town, Rural).2 Family income is measured using students eligibility or the National School Lunch Program, a
ederally assisted meal program, sometimes reerred to as the ree/reduced-price lunch program.
Free or reduced-price lunches are oered to students with incomes below 185% o the poverty level.
source Annie E. Casey Foundation analysis o data rom the NAEP Data Explorer, available at
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/
Below proicient Below Basic
Moderate- and Moderate- andall low-incoMe high-incoMe all low-incoMe high-incoMe
race/ethnicity1 students students2 students students students2 students
t 67 83 55 33 49 20
w 58 76 52 22 38 17
Bk 84 89 74 52 58 38
h 83 87 72 51 56 36
a/pf i 51 70 43 20 35 14
am i 80 85 69 50 59 34
1 Categories exclude Hispanic origin. Results are not shown or students whose race/ethnicity was unclassied.2 Family income is measured using students eligibility or the National School Lunch Program, a
ederally assisted meal program, sometimes reerred to as the ree/reduced-price lunch program.
Free or reduced-price lunches are oered to students with incomes below 185% o the poverty level.
source Annie E. Casey Foundation analysis o data rom the NAEP Data Explorer, available at
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/
taBle 1
Percent o 4th graders scoring below profcient and below basicon NAEP reading test, by geography and amily income: 2009
taBle 2
Percent o 4th graders scoring below profcient and below basicon NAEP reading test, by amily income and race/ethnicity: 2009
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INTRODUCTION
on timeand that, in a great many cases, is
the result o not being able to read pro-
ciently as early as ourth grade. The time is
now to build a similar consensus around
this less-recognized but equally urgent act:
The pool rom which employers, colleges,
and the military draw is too small, and still
shrinking, because millions o American
children get to ourth grade without
learning to read prociently. And that
puts them on the dropout track.The shortall in reading prociency is
especially pronounced among low-income
children: O the ourth-graders who took
the National Assessment o Educational
Progress (NAEP) reading test in 2009, ully
83% o children rom low-income amilies
and 85% o low-income students who attend
high-poverty schoolsailed to reach the
procient level.5 The shortall occurs
similarly or low-income kids attending
schools in cities, suburbs, towns, and rural
areas alike (with 85%, 81%, 83%, and 81%respectively ailing to meet the procient
standard).6 The statistics arent much better
or NAEPs lower achievement level, basic,
which indicates just partial mastery o
prerequisite knowledge and skills. Hal
(49%) o all low-income test takers in ourth
grade, and 53% o those who attend high-
poverty schools, do not reach even NAEPs
basic level.
Moreover, although NAEP scores have
shown incremental increases over the past
15 years within most subpopulations o
students, disparities in reading achievement
persist across racial and ethnic groups. The
share o low-income Black, Hispanic, and
Native American students who score below
procient on the NAEP reading test is catastro-
phically high (89%, 87%, and 85%, respectively)
and much larger than the share o low-
income white or Asian/Pacic Islander
students (76% and 70%). Similar dierences
occur at NAEPs basic achievement level.
These scores are prooundly disappointing
to all o us who see school success and
high school graduation as beacons in the
battle against intergenerational poerty.
The act is that the low-income ourth-
graders who cannot meet NAEPs procient
level in reading today are all too likely to
become our nations lowest-income, least-
skilled, least-productive, and most costly
citizens tomorrow. Simply put, without a
dramatic reversal o the status quo, we arecementing educational ailure and poverty
into the next generation. We know, or
example, that a childs early school success
correlates with his or her mothers level o
education. Kindergartners whose mothers
have more education are more likely to
score in the highest quartile in reading,
mathematics, and general knowledge than all
other children and to have better motor
skills than children whose mothers have less
ormal education, according to a longitudi-
nal study o 3.7 million children who enteredkindergarten in 1998.7 Students whose
mothers have less than a high school
diploma or its equivalent are more likely to
be retained in grade than children whose
mothers have a bachelors or graduate degree
(20% versus 3%).8
The bottom line is that i we dont get
dramatically more children on track as
procient readers, the United States will
lose a growing and essential proportion o
its human capital to poverty, and the price
will be paid not only by individual children
and amilies, but by the entire country. This
special report highlights the causes and
consequences o low reading prociency
and proposes some essential steps toward
closing the gap between those who can and
cannot read prociently, raising the bar or
what we expect all American children to
know and be able to do, and improving the
overall achievement o children rom low-
income amilies.
The marker we use or measur-
ing success is the prociencylevel dened by NAEP.
Although it does not equate
exactly with grade-level pro-
ciency, which varies by state, it
is closest to the level required
by global realities, and that is
the level to which we ought to
aspire. The NAEP test is given
at the beginning o ourth
grade, so it tests what a child
has learned by the end o third
grade (and over the interven-
ing summer). Fourth-grade
students perorming
at NAEPs procient levelshould be able to demonstrate
an overall understanding o
the text, providing inerential
as well as literal inormation.
When reading text appropriate
to ourth grade, they should
be able to extend the ideas in
the text by making inerences,
drawing conclusions, and
making connections to their
own experiences. The connec-
tion between the text and what
the student iners should be
clear. (http://nces.ed.gov/
nationsreportcard/reading/achieveall.asp.)
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All skills begin with the basics o reading and
math, which are supposed to be learned in the
early grades o our schools. Yet or too long, or too
many children, those skills were neer mastered.
President George W. Bush
2003 state o the union address
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Reading prociently by the end o third
grade (as measured by NAEP at the
beginning o ourth grade) can be a make-
or-break benchmark in a childs educational
deelopment. Up until the end o third
grade, most children are learning to read.
Beginning in ourth grade, however, theyare reading to learn, using their skills to gain
more inormation in subjects such as math
and science, to solve problems, to think
critically about what they are learning, and
to act upon and share that knowledge in the
world around them. Up to hal o the printed
ourth-grade curriculum is incomprehen-
sible to students who read below that grade
level, according to the Childrens Reading
Foundation.9 And three quarters o students
who are poor readers in third grade will
remain poor readers in high school, accord-
ing to researchers at Yale University.10 Not
surprisingly, students with relatively low
literacy achievement tend to have more
behavioral and social problems in subse-
quent grades11 and higher rates o retention
in grade. The National Research Council
asserts that academic success, as dened by
high school graduation, can be predicted
Reading Procientlyby the End o ThirdGrade Mattersa Lot
with reasonable accuracy by knowing
someones reading skill at the end o third
grade. A person who is not at least a mod-
estly skilled reader by that time is unlikely
to graduate rom high school.12
Low achieement in reading has importantlong-term consequences in terms o
indiidual earning potential, global competi-
tieness, and general productiity. At an
individual level, the median annual income
o a high school dropout in 2007 was
$23,000, compared with $48,000 or
someone who obtained a bachelors or
higher degree13a considerable dierence
or anyone trying to support a amily and be
economically sel-sucient. Globally, the
United States perorms poorly against our
trading partners and competitors in
comparisons o reading achievement.
Fourth-graders in 10 o 45 educational
jurisdictions around the world who were
tested in 2006 scored signicantly higher in
reading literacy than their counterparts in
the United States, including children in
Russia, Hong Kong, Singapore, parts o
Canada, and Hungary.14 The number o
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READING PROFICIENTLY BY THE END OF THIRD GRADE MATTERSA LOT
countries that outperorm the United States
in reading is growing.15
The education achievement gap leads
to a productivity gap between the United
States and other countries. McKinsey &
Company estimates that i U.S. students had
met the educational achievement levels o
higher-perorming nations between 1983
and 1998, Americas GDP in 2008 could have
been $1.3 trillion to $2.3 trillion higher.16 In
that sense, the education gap has createdthe equivalent o a permanent, deep reces-
sion in terms o the gap between actual and
potential output in the economy, McKinsey
asserts.17 U.S. Secretary o Education Arne
Duncan puts it this way: We have to
educate our way to a better economy. 18
Demographic realities make the reading gap
too large a problem to ignore. Lets do the
math: There are 7.9 million low-income
children rom birth through age 8one-th
o all kids in this age group.19
I currenttrends hold true, 6.6 million o these children
(83%20) are at increased risk o ailing to
graduate rom high school on time because
they wont be able to meet NAEPs procient
reading level by the end o third grade.
Changes to the United States racial/
ethnic composition also command attention.
By 2023, more than hal o the countrys
student population will be non-white,21 and
by 2042, the majority o the overall U.S.
population will be non-white.22 (In many
states that play a critical role in the U.S.
economy, such as Caliornia, the change has
already arrived.) The astest-growing
subpopulation is Hispanic/Latinoindeed,
by 2050, nearly one in three U.S. residents
will be Hispanic23yet Hispanic children
have some o the poorest educational
outcomes in the country. Simultaneously,
the Baby Boom generation is reaching
retirement age and must be replaced in the
workorce. And so, asNew York Times
editorialist Bob Herbert notes, I America is
to maintain its leadership position in the
world and provide a rst-rate quality o lie
or its citizens here at home, the educational
achievement o American youngsters across
the board[emphasis added] needs to be
ratcheted way up.24
The world economy demands a moreeducated workorce, and grade-leel
reading prociency is the key. Students who
cannot read prociently are especially
unlikely to obtain a post-secondary degree,
which is necessary or the kind o jobs that
make America globally competitive in the
age o inormation and communications
technology. And adult workers who cannot
read well are less able to acquire new skills
and adapt to new needs in a ast-changing
global marketplace.
Analyses o data rom the Organiza-tion or Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) indicate that the
United States will need 60% o its popula-
tion to possess a post-secondary degree or
credential by 2025 to remain globally
competitive.25 Currently, 30% o all adult
workers in the United States hold our-year
degrees, an attainment rate second only to
Norway.26 But i we look at the rate among
the youngest adult workersthose workers
on whom our uture dependsthe United
States ranked sixth among OECD nations in
2006, behind Norway, the Netherlands,
South Korea, Denmark, and Sweden.27 I we
look at two-year degrees, the U.S. attain-
ment rate or all workers is only average and
has allen over time.28 To achieve the OECD
goal or workers with post-secondary
degrees, the United States will need to
produce 16 million more graduates above
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READING PROFICIENTLY BY THE END OF THIRD GRADE MATTERSA LOT
the current rate o production.29 That
cannot happen unless we increase the
number o high school graduates. And that
requires signicantly more children getting
on track to graduation by reading pro-
ciently by the end o third grade.
Our current approach to testing and
standards masks the extent o our nations
problem with reading prociency. In reality,
a large proportion oall ourth-graders whotake the NAEP reading test ail to reach the
procient level, including 55% o all students
rom moderate- to high-income amilies
(regardless o race/ethnicity).30 But many o
these non-procient readers arent identi-
ed by state-level tests. The George W. Bush
administrations No Child Let Behind Act
o 2001 (NCLB) required annual testing and
reporting o reading prociency scores with
the goal that virtually all children will meet
grade-level prociency standards by 2014.
(Proposals or the laws upcoming reautho-rization would remove that deadline but
continue tracking students grade-level
prociency year to year and rewarding
schools or student progress.) NCLB also
required states to disaggregate scores
according to socioeconomic status, race/
ethnicity, gender, disability, and English
prociency. Those requirements helped
ocus long-overdue attention on the gaps
among student subpopulations.
However, NCLBs current provisions,
especially those around annual yearly
progress, also have had the unintended and
perverse eect o contributing to a race to
the bottom on standards. With no consis-
tent, commonly accepted and applied
understanding o what reading pro-
ciency means or how to measure it, many
states have lowered the cut scorethe
number o items a student must answer
correctlyto ensure that a sucient
proportion o students meet NCLBs
requirement or adequate yearly progress.
Each state sets its own standard and uses its
own unique test to measure prociency, and
most set a low (and alling) bar compared
with the NAEP standard.A study by the National Center or
Education Statistics, based on 2007 data,
concluded that no state set its own reading
prociency standard or ourth-graders
at a level that met or exceeded NAEPs
procient standard. Only 16 states set
their prociency standard at a level that
met or exceeded NAEPs lower basic
standard. The remaining states set their
prociency standard at so low a level that
it alls below the NAEP basic reading
level.31
Furthermore, between 2005 and2007, 15 states loweredtheir prociency
standards in ourth- or eighth-grade reading
or math, while only eight states increased
the rigor o standards in one or both
subjects and grades.32
The result: State testing data consis-
tently underreport the true depth and
extent o the decit in reading prociency,
thereby depriving parents, educators,
communities, and policymakers o a
powerul tool or advocating change and
measuring progress. Children in many
states may be nominally procient, but still
lack the skills to actually read at the level
required to learn eciently in the ourth
grade and beyond.33
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ecf.o | The ae E. Cse Foudto | 1
state score 150
M 232
M 227
s c 223
M 215
M 214
Vm 214
c 213
ak 213
h 212
pv 211
c 210r i 210
n hm 210
n Mx 210
n yk 209
209
nv 207
Kk 205
wm 204
M 203
w 203
d 202
n J 201
n dk 201
i 200i 199
i 199
o 198
az 198
i 197
l 193
w 193
K 192
V 191
tx1 188
c 187
o 186
M 186
s dk 185
g 185
ak 183
n c 183
w V 182
abm 179
M 178
t 175
okm 172
M 163
d cmb n.a.
nbk n.a.
u n.a.
208
NAEPBasic
238
NAEPProficient
1 Relative error greater than 0.5.
source U.S. Department o Education, National Center or Education Statistics, Institute o
Education Sciences, Mapping State Prociency Standards Onto NAEP Scales. 20052007
N.A. = State assessment data not available
igure 1
NAEP scale equivalent scores or the state grade 4 readingstandards or profcient perormance, by state: 2007
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Now I ask you and I ask all our nations goernors,
I ask parents, teachers, and citizens all acrossAmerica or a new nonpartisan commitment
to education, because education is a critical
national security issue or our uture, and
politics must stop at the schoolhouse door.
President William J. Clinton
1997 state o the union address
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ecf.o | The ae E. Cse Foudto | 1
Children must be readyto succeed when
they get to school (cognitiely, socially,
emotionally, and physically) beore they can
learn there. They also need to bepresent at
schoolattending regularlybecause they
cant learn i they arent there. And they
need to have high-quality learning opportu-nities, beginning at birth and continuing in
school and during out-o-school time,
including summers, in order to sustain
learning gains and not lose ground. For
millions o American children, however,
these essential conditions are not met.
For low-income children in particular,
a readiness gap uels much o what has
become known as the achievement gap.
Readiness includes being in good health;
having the support o a strong amily;
eeling sae; and having positive social
interaction skills, language skills, the
motivation to learn, emotional and behav-
ioral sel-control, and physical skills and
capacities. Education and policy leaders on
both sides o the aisle recognized the
importance o readiness in the Goals 2000:
Educate America Act, signed into law in
1994, which called or all children to have
Seeral Maor FactorsUndermine Grade-LeelReading Prociency
access to high-quality, developmentally
appropriate preschool programs and the
nutrition, physical activity experiences, and
health care needed to arrive at school with
healthy minds and bodies and to maintain
the mental alertness necessary to be
prepared to learn.34
Despite that aspiration,however, an acute readiness gap oten
begins at birth, continues growing until
school entry, and leads to an achievement
gap that persists through each subsequent
year o schooling.
The gap begins at birth or children born
low birthweight, prematurely, with congeni-
tal health problems, or aected by prenatal
exposure to toxic substances. Children
arent born with an equal chance at the
American Dream, as Ron Haskins and
Isabel Sawhill point out in Creating an
Opportunity Society,35 and one o the most
basic and early dierences has to do with
health at birth. Low-birthweight babies are
at greater risk than normal-weight babies or
neurodevelopmental problems (e.g., cerebral
palsy, blindness, and mental retardation),
behavioral problems, and attention decit
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SEvERAL MAjOR FACTORS UNDERMINE GRADE-LEvEL READING PROFICIENCY
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)36all o
which can interere with learning and
school success. KIDS COUNT data show
that 8% o all children nationally have low
birthweight,37 but the percentage is higher
or children born to low-income mothers
(10%) than or higher-income children (6%).38
Newborns whose mothers have low levels oeducation are more likely than newborns o
more-educated mothers to have been
exposed prenatally to cigarette smoke,
alcohol, drugs, and olic acid deciencies,
which can cause preterm birth, intrauterine
growth retardation, and long-lasting eects
on the childs cognition and behavior.39
The readiness gap continues between birth
and kindergarten due to dierences in
childrens resources and opportunities or
physical, linguistic, cognitie, social,
emotional, and behaioral deelopment.
Disparities on developmental outcomes
emerge in inancy and widen in toddler-
hood. By the time children rom low-income
amilies enter kindergarten, they are
typically 1214 months below national
norms in language and pre-reading skills.40
Low-income children have a higher
incidence o health problems that interere
with learning, such as chronic asthma, poor
hearing, vision and dental problems, ADHD,41
requent headaches, heart conditions, kidney
disease, epilepsy, digestive problems, and
mental retardation.42 Almost 10% o low-
income children under age 8 have a physical
or mental health condition that limits their
activities, compared with 6% o middle-
income children.43
Children are less likely tobe in excellent or very good health at 9 and
24 months i they come rom low-income
amilies, racial/ethnic minority groups,
homes where English isnt spoken, and/or
mothers with low education levels.44 More-
over, low-income children receive less, and
lower-quality, medical careand are less
well as a resultthan wealthier children who
have the same health problems.45
Too many children rom low-income
amilies lack early interactions that oster
linguistic development, including verbal
interactions with their parents, being read to,
and access to books in their home, compared
with children rom middle-income amilies.46
Vocabulary development by age 3 has been
ound to predict reading achievement by
third grade.47 Preschoolers whose parents
(especially mothers) read to them,48 tell stories,
or sing songs tend to develop larger vocabu-
laries,49 become better readers, and perorm
better in school, while children who lack this
America ows to be the country o hope and opportunity or
all, but it ails to ulll this promise to our youngest citizens.
We celebrate their birth but then wait to see i they succeed
in school beore we pay attention to their strengths and needs.
roM A Quiet Crisis: The Urgent Need to Build Early Childhood Systemsand Quality Programs or Children Birth to Age Five, policy statementby the Council o Chie State School Ofcers (November 2009).
aVailaBle at www.ccsso.o
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SEvERAL MAjOR FACTORS UNDERMINE GRADE-LEvEL READING PROFICIENCY
stimulation during early childhood tend to
arrive at school with measurably weaker
language, cognitive, and memory skills.50 By
age 3, children rom wealthier amilies
typically have heard 30 million more words
than children rom low-income amilies.51
Some children dont develop the
social and emotional skills needed to
unction in a structured environment like
school beore they reach school age. These
capacities, which are just as essential ascognitive skills or school success, include:
the ability to manage emotions, ollow direc-
tions, take turns, share, take responsibility,
work independently and cooperatively, and
stick with a task; motivation; enjoyment o
learning; and the executive unctionan
ability to control onesel, make plans, learn
rules, act appropriately, and think in abstract
terms. Low-income children who are rated
relatively high on social skills in kindergarten
and rst grade tend to have better literacy
skills than children with low social skillsratings, a trend that continues into third
grade.52 Between 9% and 14% o children ages
birth through 5 experience socio-emotional
problems that negatively impact their unction,
development, and school readiness.53
Low-income children are less likely
than middle-income children to participate
in high-quality early childhood and pre-
kindergarten programs that prepare
children to succeed in school. Nationally,
only about 47% o 3- and 4-year-olds are
enrolled in a preschool program o any
kind.54 State-unded programs, arguably the
type most aordable or low-income amilies,
served only 24% o 4-year-olds in 2008. 55
Although enrollment is growingthe number
o 4-year-olds in state pre-K jumped by 67%
between 2002 and 20095612 states have no
state-wide unded preschool program at all.57
The ederally unded Early Head Start
program serves only 3% o inants and toddlers
rom eligible low-income amilies, nationally.58
The readiness gap becomes an achieement
gap when children enter school, and this
gap persists oer the students school
experience. McKinsey & Company ound a
gap o two to three years o learning between
low-income and higher-income students in
its analysis o average NAEP scores (10 points
on the NAEP test are roughly equal to one
year o education).59 For many low-income
students, the achievement gap is exacer-
bated by low-perorming schools; chronicabsence; summer reading loss; and stressors
like childhood hunger and ood insecurity,
housing insecurity, and amily mobility.
Too many children attend low-
perorming schools or schools that are
not ready to teach to high standards
under-resourced schools that are not
organized to ulll the expectation that they
will serve as portals to equal opportunity. In
low-perorming schools, the curriculum is
shallow, overly broad, [and] ails to teach
students basic skills,60
rather than beingcontent-rich, challenging, developmentally
appropriate, aligned with standards and
assessments, culturally responsive, and built
around a coherent scope and sequence so it
can serve as a road map or learning.
Although the National Reading Panel
identied ve essential components o reading
instruction,61 those elements are not always
made part o schools curriculum or instruc-
tion. Unclear guidelines leave teachers to
gure out or themselves what to teach,
what order to teach it in, how to teach it, and
to what level.62 Assessments oten are
inappropriatemismatched to childrens
ages, developmental stages, and cultures or
languages;63 not designed to measure
higher-order critical-thinking skills;64 too
narrowly ocused65and poorly adminis-
tered. Too many teachers lack the training,
experiences, or knowledge needed to teach
reading eectively66, 67 and opportunities to
collaborate with and learn rom their peers.
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SEvERAL MAjOR FACTORS UNDERMINE GRADE-LEvEL READING PROFICIENCY
Low-income children ace a double
jeopardy because they are most likely to live
in places where high rates o student
poverty, residential instability, neighbor-
hood crime and distress, aging acilities, and
limited scal capacity all undermine the
perormance o public schools.68 School
districts with relatively ew low-income
students spend about $773 more per student
than districts with a majority o low-income
students.69 The gap is even greater$1,122per studentbetween districts with high
and low levels o minority students.70 Even
apart rom the money gap, many schools are
not equipped with the materials, tools,
strategies, and expertise to deal with large
numbers o struggling readers, especially
children retained in grade who need
remedial assistance. In these places, school
perormance reinorces and perpetuatesa
vicious cycle o poverty concentration, racial
segregation, and neighborhood distress.71
Furthermore, a disconnection otenexists between schools and amilies,
especially when parents have low levels o
education or are recent immigrants. In 1960,
school reorm developer James Comer
indicated that one o the biggest challenges
to improving education was to reduce the
distance between the culture o the school
and that o the community, and his observa-
tion still holds true today. Too oten, schools
have low expectations or low-income
students and children o color. Schools also
may discount the potential to use students
racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds as
levers or learning; parents may not under-
stand or eel comortable with the school
culture; and children may drop out
mentally because o the lack o connection
between school and their own lives.
School district policies oten exacer-
bate the problem by disproportionately
assigning low-income and minority students
to teachers who are inexperienced, academ-
ically weaker, or teaching out o their eld.72
According to The Education Trust, The
percentage o rst-year teachers at high-
minority schools is almost twice as high as
the percentageat low-minority schools.73
Low pay also makes it hard to attract and
retain good educators. With teachers
earning approximately 89 cents on the
dollar compared with workers in similar
occupations,74 its no surprise that new
teachers leave the proession at an alarm-
ing rate50% in the rst ve years oteaching, by some estimates.75
Too many children miss too much
instructional time due to chronic absence.
Chronic absence (missing 10% or more o the
school year, or any reason) is a problem or
1 in 10 kindergartners and rst-graders
nationwide. In some districts, the ratio is as
high as 1 in 4 (1 in 2 at some elementary
schools) or children in grades K3.76 Its
oten hard to gauge the extent o chronic
absence because most schools monitor only
average daily attendance and unexcusedabsences, which can mask the chronic
absence o many individual students.77
Chronic absence matters because
succeeding in school requires beingin
school; a child who isnt present isnt
acquiring what he or she needs to know to
succeed there. Chronic absence in kinder-
garten is associated with lower academic
perormance in rst grade. For low-income
children, chronic early absence predicts the
lowest levels o educational achievement at
the end o th grade.78 By sixth grade,
students who attend school less than 80% o
the time, or ail math or English/reading, or
receive an unsatisactory behavior grade in
a core course, have only a 10% to 20%
chance o graduating on time.79 And by
ninth grade, missing 20% o school can
predict dropping out better than eighth-
grade test scores.80
Chronic early absence can signal
problems within the school or community or
a parents unawareness that regular attendance
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taBle 3
Percent o 4th graders who scored below profcient and basiclevels on NAEP reading test, by race/ethnicity, amily income,and school income: 2009
Below proicient Below Basic
aMily incoMe3
aMily incoMe3
Moderate to Moderate to
race/ethnicity1 school incoMe2 low incoMe high incoMe low incoMe high incoMe
total
M- -m 76 49 39 16
l-m 85 65 53 28
white
M- -m 72 47 33 14
l-m 77 59 40 22
BlacK
M- -m 83 67 48 30
l-m 90 79 60 44
hispanic
M- -m 82 64 44 29
l-m 88 79 58 45
asian/paciic islander
M- -m 66 39 26 12
l-m 71 55 39 24
1 Categories exclude Hispanic origin. Results are not shown or students whose race/ethnicity
was unclassied.2 School income is measured as those schools with high rates o low-income children that receive
Title I unds to support school-wide programs.3 Family income is measured using students eligibility or the National School Lunch Program, a
ederally assisted meal program, sometimes reerred to as the ree/reduced-price lunch program.
Free or reduced-price lunches are oered to students with incomes below 185% o the poverty level.
source Annie E. Casey Foundation analysis o data rom the NAEP Data Explorer, available at
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/
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matters. It also may be caused by major
amily stressors, such as a parents physical
or mental health condition, amily violence,
substance abuse, or child abuse or neglect.
Too many children lose ground
during the summer months. Children o all
socioeconomic groups make similar achieve-
ment gains during the school year (relative to
their starting points), but research shows that
low-income children all behind during the
summer by as much as two months o readingachievementwhile their middle-income peers
make slight gains.81 Since it is low-[income]
youth specically whose out-o-school
learning lags behind, this summer shortall
relative to better-o children contributes to
the perpetuation o amily advantage and
disadvantage across generations, a recent
study ound.82 Summer learning experiences
during the early school years also substan-
tially account or higher achievement in
terms o placement in a college preparatory
track, high school completion, and atten-dance at a our-year college.83
Summer learning loss produces a gap
that grows over the years. A study o
Baltimore students ound that by the end o
th grade, low-income students read at a
level almost three grades behind that o
middle-income students. By ninth grade,
summer learning loss over the ve preced-
ing years accounted or more than hal o
the dierence in reading skills.84 To catch
up, youth who have allen behind academi-
cally need to make larger-than-average
gains. That is expecting a great deal,
perhaps too much, o struggling students.85
Researchers attribute the socioeco-
nomic gap in summer learning to dierences
in amilies economic resources (wealthier
amilies can pay or more books, computers,
and alternate learning opportunities when
school is out) and in parents attitudes
toward school and learning (middle-class
parents take an active rolewhile poorer
parents see education as the schools job).86
Summer learning programs help some
children gain reading skills (as well as social
skills and sel-ecacy). However, only 25%
to 36% o children between ages 611 attend
summer learning programs.87 And, para-
doxically, the students who might gain the
most rom summer learning programs are
least likely to participate. An analysis o the
1999 National Survey o Americas Families
ound that 29% o children rom middle-
income households participate in summerlearning programs, compared with only 18%
o children rom low-income households.88
Too many children are distracted by
childhood hunger and ood insecurity,
housing insecurity, and amily mobility.
Nearly 1 in 4 American children16.7 million
altogetherstruggles with hunger and ood
insecurity (not knowing when the next meal
will come).89 Malnourished children have
impaired cognitive development, long-term
emotional and health problems, decreased
educational attainment, and decreasedproductivity.90 In a school setting, hungry
children oten eel sick, tired, cranky, or
bored; ght more with classmates and get
in trouble with teachers; eel anxious or
unable to concentrate; [and] suer rom poor
health, weakened immune systems, and
increased hospitalizations.91 As Bill Shore,
ounder o Share Our Strength, observes,
Childhood hunger steals opportunities and
dims utures.92 In a 2009 survey o 740
teachers nationwide, 62% reported that some
students in their K8 classrooms come to
school hungry every week.93 Although
children rom low-income amilies qualiy
or ree or reduced-price breakast at school,
10 million eligible kids dont get any,94 either
because o the stigma attached to receiving
help or because turbulence in their lives
keeps them rom getting to school on time.
Low-income amilies are more likely
than middle-income amilies to live in
substandard housing, which is associated
with exposure to lead paint, asbestos, mold,
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SEvERAL MAjOR FACTORS UNDERMINE GRADE-LEvEL READING PROFICIENCY
[C]urrently, most children experience a wide range o
disparate experiences that umble together and end up
requiring our youngest learners to gure them out on their
own. Our children are not ailing to learn. Our schools are
ailing to teach them eectiely. To reerse this trend and
proide children with the skills necessary or lie-long learning,
all Americans must take responsibility or guaranteeing a
high-quality PreK3rd education to this and uture generations.
roM Americas Vanishing Potential: The Case or PreK3rd Education,by the Foundation or Child Development (2008).
aVailaBle at www.fcd-us.o
roaches, and rodents. These conditions can
aect childrens cognitive unctioning and
behavior, and can increase the incidence oasthma, which can cause school absences.
In some locations, the rates o these health
problems are very high. Separate surveys
ound that asthma rates in Boston public
housing (22%) were signicantly higher
than the national average (14%)95 and that
68% o children attending a pediatric clinic
in inner-city Philadelphia had unsae levels
o lead in their blood.96
Low-income amilies also are more
likely than middle-income amilies to move
requently, oten causing their children to
change schools mid-year. Mobility rates are
higher among low-income households and in
distressed neighborhoods than or higher-
income households and homeowners.97 High
levels o student mobility undermine
educational outcomes not only or individ-
ual students but also or the schools they
attend.98 The ranks o transient and
homeless students have grown in the
current economy due to parental job loss
and the destabilizing eects o the oreclo-sure crisis. Students who have changed
schools two or more times in the previous
year are hal as likely as their stable peers to
read well,99 and third-graders who changed
schools requently are 2.5 times more likely
to repeat a grade.100
Too many children nd their prospects
or success in school damaged and disrupted
by other amily-related stressors.Young
children exposed to amily violence, parental
depression, and abuse and neglect are consid-
erably more likely to experience problems
that interere with learning.101, 102 Children in
low-income amilies are disproportionately
more likely to have their amilies disrupted
by entrance into the child welare system and
having to change neighborhoods and schools.
Language decits, hyperactivity, depression,
anxiety, disengagement all are associated with
these sources o chronic or toxic stress.103
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We must challenge not only the methods and
the means that wee used in the past but
also the yardsticks that wee used to measureour progress. Our strategy to meet these
noble national goals is ounded in common
sense and common alues. Its ambitious but,
with hard work, its within our reach.
President George H.W. Bush
at the presentation o the aMerica 2000: national education strategy, april 18, 1991
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Getting more young children to read
prociently is no mission impossible.
Much is already known about the science
o how people learn to read and how
to impart reading skills. The National
Institute or Child Health and Development
has produced extensive research on thetopic or nearly ve decades,104 and the
National Reading Panel identied ve
essential components o reading instruc-
tion.105 Many reading and teaching experts
have urther specied what needs to
happen in the classroom to help children
learn to read.
High-quality reading and enrich-
ment programs based on this knowledge,
as well as eorts to develop childrens
social-emotional skills and to empower
parents as coaches and advocates or
their young readers, already operate in
many classrooms, schools, churches,
libraries, and community centers across
the country. There are many sterling
examples o places where the achievement
gap in reading is being eliminated or low-
income students, and lots o high-prole
organizations and philanthropies have
America Can Sole theCrisis in Grade-LeelReading Prociency
stepped up as champions o grade-level
reading prociency.
Despite this considerable eort,
current policies and unding streams are
too ragmented, programs too segmented
by childrens age and developmental stage,
and key interventions too partial to getwidespread positive results. (A 2008
analysis lists more than 100 ederal pro-
grams and sources or unding childrens
services in eight dierent categories o
intervention.106) Twenty-two years ago,
while analyzing why so little o what is
known to work gets applied in practice,
Lisbeth Schorr wrote o traditions which
segregate bodies o inormation by proes-
sional, academic, political, and bureaucratic
boundaries and a world in which complex
intertwined problems are sliced into
manageable but trivial parts.107 Around
the same time, Sid Gardner wrote that
we end up contributing our money, and
more important, our political and spiritual
energy, to building a ragmented non-
system o well-meaning, specialized
programs.108 Sadly, both observations
are still true today.
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In 1997, Congress asked the Director o
the National Institute o Child Health and
Human Deelopment and the Secretary
o Education to conene a national panel
on reading. The Panel reiewed extensie
research, conducted public hearings, and
consulted with leading education
organizations to gather knowledge on
eectie approaches or teaching children
to read. In 2000, the Panel issued e
essential components o reading instruction,
which are included in the best readinginstruction programs today:
Phonemic awareness: Ability to
manipulate sounds in words
Phonics: Knowledge o relationships
between written letters and sounds
vocabulary: Understanding the meaning
o words in reading and in written and
spoken language
Fluency: Ability to read rapidly
Comprehension: Ability to gain meaning
while reading
These elements also are refected in the
Foundational Skills section o the drat
Common Core State Standards or English
Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social
Studies and Science released in March
2010. The introduction to this section
explains that These standardsare not
an end in and o themseles; rather, they
are necessary and important components
o an eectie, comprehensie reading
program designed to deelop procient
readers with the capacity to comprehendtexts across a range o types and disciplines.
The proposed standards place ocabulary
acquisition and use in a separate strand
because their importance extends beyond
writing and reading. (www.corestandards.org)
sourceTeaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment o the Scientic Research Literatureon Reading and Its Implications or Reading Instruction, National Reading Panel (2000). Available at
www.nichd.nih.gov.
Five Essential Components o Reading Instruction
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AMERICA CAN SOLvE THE CRISIS IN GRADE-LEvEL READING PROFICIENCY
This is the right time to take on the
challenge o dramatically increasing the
number o children, especially rom low-income amilies, who read prociently. Both
Congress and the administration have taken
up the reauthorization o the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act (No Child Let
Behind). The administration has published its
Blueprint for Reform, and congressional
hearings have been scheduled. The nations
governors and chie state school ocers,
working through their respective national
organizations, have prepared and published
or comment the preliminary drat o the
Common Core State Standards, whichraise expectations or what American
children need to know and be able to do.
Dozens o meetings and thousands o
comments provide ample evidence o
widespread public interest in ending the
race to the bottom and achieving more
eective alignment across the curriculum
and along the cradle to career continuum.
These major policy opportunities
arm broad bipartisan support or the
initiatives undertaken by Secretary
Duncan and the Department o Education.
This bipartisan support is augmented by
steadast advocacy by the Business Coalition
or Student Achievement; United Ways
long-standing commitment to early success;
the increasingly infuential work o Ameri-
cas Promise Alliance; and Mission:
Readiness, a group o retired military
ocers who believe that our nations
security requires ensuring that children
are ready or and prepared to succeed
in school. Along with the still-to-be-announced Presidential Early Learning
Council, these developments present
unprecedented venues, orums, incentives,
and opportunities to move the needle on
grade-level reading prociency by the end
o third grade.
We oer the ollowing recommenda-
tions with those opportunities in mind, as
well as a two-part caveat. First, i there is
one theme uniting all o the issues involved
in Americas reading crisis, it is the certainty
that no single response oers a totalsolution. It will take both wide-ranging and
careully targeted actions and initiatives to
help more students read prociently by the
end o third grade so they can take on the
learning tasks associated with ourth grade
and beyond. The recommendations that
ollow acknowledge the important roles that
distinct elds, sectors, and constituencies
must play, but it is the collective and
cumulative eect o these actions that will
make the dierence. Second, we dont want
people to stop doing good work within their
sectors. We do want to see those eorts
intensied and accelerated, better aligned,
and better applied in pursuit o a clearly
articulated, measurable, achievable goal:
increasing the number and proportion o
children, especially rom low-income
amilies, who read prociently by the end
o third grade.
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AMERICA CAN SOLvE THE CRISIS IN GRADE-LEvEL READING PROFICIENCY
We applaud the Obama Administrations
decision to create a Presidential Early
Learning Council and to extend its scope
rom birth through age 8. We encourage the
Council to pay special attention to the need
or a coherent early care and education
system at the ederal level, as the entry point
to what the President and Secretary Duncancall a cradle-to-career educational pipe-
line, and develop practical suggestions or
how to support, encourage, and incentivize
state and local governments to create
similar systems. The Council can and should
put a stake in the ground at the key destina-
tion o third-grade reading and then map
backward, bridging the divisions that now
exist between proessionals and disciplines
organized around a particular developmen-
tal period or milestone.
We need a more systematic and coordi-
nated approach to early care and education
to ensure that children are born healthy;
develop on track; and have the experiences,
supports, and resources needed to master
the tasks and skills that lead to healthy child
development and school successregardless
o the type o program they attend or their
ethnicity, geographic location, economic
status, language spoken, parental education
level, or special health-care needs. What
currently exists is not a system at all, but a
chaotic assortment o ragmented or
unevenly available public and private
programs supported by categorical unding
streams, many o which would be ar more
eective i intentionally linked as part o acoherent system o early childhood services.
Replacing the ragmented parts with a
true system not only would refect good
science on child development, it makes good
economic sense. Economist James Heckman
has determined that investments in low-
income young childrens healthy
development are more economically
ecient than eorts to address problems as
children age, in part because early skills
make it easier and more ecient to develop
later ones. He has documented a rate o
return on investment or early childhood
programs that serve low-income children o
7% to 10%, [exceeding] the historical rate
o return to equity o around 6%.109 In a
similar review o early childhood develop-
ment studies, Burr and Grunewald ound
return rates o 7% to 20% in the orm o
higher earnings and tax payments by
children and parents, reduced use o
RECOMMENDATION 1Develop a coherent system o early care and education that aligns,integrates, and coordinates what happens rom birth throughthird grade so children are ready to take on the learning tasksassociated with ourth grade and beyond.
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AMERICA CAN SOLvE THE CRISIS IN GRADE-LEvEL READING PROFICIENCY
welare, and the creation o a larger, more
qualied workorce.110 The benetcost
ratios o our early childhood enrichment
programs ranged rom $3 to $17 or every
dollar invested, with benets accruing
not only to program participants but also
the non-participating public.111
A more eective system must be
organized to achieve clear, interrelated
results. The system we envision would
promote a widely shared ocus on thesetarget results:
Children born healthy;
Children healthy, thriving, and develop-
ing on track (no untreated health
conditions or avoidable developmental
delays), rom birth through third grade
and beyond;
Children developmentally ready
(cognitively, socially, physically, andemotionally) to succeed in school at
the time o school entry; and
Children prepared to succeed in ourth
grade and beyond by reading pro-
ciently by the end o third grade.
A system must also encompass the capaci-
ties needed to achieve its target results. The
early care and learning system we envision
would develop and promote these basic
capacities, resources, and tools:
Consistent, aligned expectations or
childrens healthy development rom
birth through third grade that link early
childhood, child care, preschool, and
K3 education. This would include a
ocus on childrens healthy social-
emotional development, as well as
cognitive development.
Appropriate, comparable instruments
or measuring results along the contin-
uum rom birth through age 8 that are
based on common standards or early
childhood programs and practitioners.
Content-rich, developmentally appro-
priate curricula linked to standards and
assessments.
The inrastructure, knowledge, incen-tives, and accountability structures
needed to collect and analyze data ,
making it possible to track childrens
progress toward results rom birth
through third grade, individualize
teaching strategies, and intervene
when needed.
An aligned proessional development
system, and sucient compensation, to
ensure a well-trained, competent, and
qualied workorce in birth-to-5services and child care and in pre-K to
third grade, including inant health
specialists, early childhood developmen-
tal specialists, preschool and K3
teachers, principals, health and mental
health proessionals, school social
workers, nurse home visitors, and child
trauma psychotherapists.
Provision o high-quality resources,
networks, services, supports, and
programming to help children develop
on track between birth and third grade.
Seamless transitions between each stage
on the child development and education
continuum so that experiences at each
stage (age birth to 3, birth to 5, pre-
kindergarten, and K3) build on the
previous one and lay essential ground-
work or the one to come.
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AMERICA CAN SOLvE THE CRISIS IN GRADE-LEvEL READING PROFICIENCY
Encouragement or reading embedded
in the agencies and institutions that
work and interact with young children
and amilies.
Funding that is linked to compliance
with common quality standards and is
fexible, blendable, and sucient or thecontinuum o services and supports
needed to get children ready or school
and to provide school experiences that
help them become strong readers.
Universal access to, and greater use o,
high-quality programs or child care,
early learning, school readiness, pre-
school, K3, ater-school, and summer
learning experiences.
Access to high-quality, aordable,
comprehensive health care (including
preventive, acute, emergency, and
chronic care) or physical, mental, and
oral health or all amilies with inants
and young children.
Establishment o medical homes and
primary care practices that ocus broadly
on childrens healthy development,
building on exemplary programs such as
Help Me Grow and Reach Out and Read,
and drawing rom Bright Futures.
Some unders and stakeholder groups havealready taken steps to link early childhood,
preschool, and in-school education; other
good work ocuses on a portion o the
continuum. We are encouraged by the
number o people, organizations, and
advocates who recognize the interdepen-
dence among pieces o the continuum and
who embrace the need to ocus on results.
We now need to apply that ocus to
aligning, sequencing, and coordinating
collaborative work across the birth-to-third-
grade spectrum with the goal o increasing
reading prociency by the end o third
grade, within a context that takes ull
account o the social, emotional, and other
non-cognitive actors that are essential to
the healthy development o young children.
The articial diisions between early childhood, elementary
and secondary, and postsecondary systems create gaps and
poor coordination in our education pipeline, wasting much o
our public inestment in human capital. To create a seamless
educational pipeline capable o preparing our nations young
people or success in work and lie, we must bring these disparate
educational systems into greater alignment with one another
across all leels o the education system, and proid[e] a more
consistent educational experience at each o these leels.
roM A Next Social Contract or the Primary Years o Education,by Lisa Guernsey and Sara Mead (March 2010).
aVailaBle at new amec Foudto, www.ewmec.et
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RECOMMENDATION 2Encourage and enable parents, amilies, and caregivers to play theirindispensable roles as co-producers o good outcomes or their children.
The challenge o helping amilies improe
childrens reading prociency alls to all o
us: policymakers, unders, system leaders,rontline practitioners, child advocates,
community activists, neighbors, and amily
members alike.
There is no substitute or the parent or
primary caregiers role as a childs rst
teacher, best coach, and most concerned
adocate.Yet we oten take or granted that
parents will acquire the awareness, skills,
and supports they need to ulll the
obligations inherent in these essential roles.
Low-income and less-educated parentswant their children to succeed in school, but
they are less likely to have positive experi-
ences to draw upon in helping their children
succeed or eel respected and supported by
the school system. We pretend not to notice
that ractured social networks, disrupted
communities, lack o community resources,
and other actors outside the home impede
parents ability to ulll their roleand then
we blame amilies or childrens educational
ailures. We are even less likely to notice
when parents are simply unaware o how
important early literacy and third-grade
reading prociency are to their childrens
utures or are unsure o how to help their
children become procient.
The parents role begins early and
covers a lot o ground. Parents should read
to and converse with their very young
children to instill the language and vocabu-
lary skills that lead to procient reading
later on. They should cultivate a joy o
learning, a sense that reading is pleasurable,
and a desire or educationand then make
sure their children show up or school every
day. Parents should understand why itsimportant to read prociently by the end o
third grade and then proactively monitor
their childs progress toward that goal. They
should encourage their children to choose
reading as a ree-time activity. I a child
struggles to read, the parent has to be able
to nd and mobilize the necessary help rom
teachers, schools, education specialists,
and/or medical proessionalssomething
that low-income parents with low levels o
education, and recent immigrants, may be
uncomortable doing. Parents should ndater-school activities or their children that
provide literacy enrichment and summer
learning activities that protect against
summer learning loss. Parents who cant
read should develop their own literacy skills
and, when necessary, English language
skills so they can help their children
succeed in school.
In summary, we need to help parents
and caregivers succeed in ensuring that
their children attend every day, achieve
every year, and attain over time. We also
need to encourage and help parents to
complete their own education, both as a
way to improve amilies economic sel-
suciency and because o the positive
impact it has on childrens school success.
Across the country, many organizations
already are engaged in dicult and impor-
tant eorts to promote successul parenting,
generally, and parental support or early
literacy and reading, in particular. We
acknowledge and applaud this work.
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Community Schools Engage Parents as Partners
This report does not explore the many
strategies or engaging parents in their
childrens education. Howeer, the
community schools strategy bears
mentioning as one o the most prealent
and successul approaches. Community
schools operate as community hubs,
bringing together many partners to oer
education, health and social serices, and
youth and community deelopment or
children, young people, parents, and othercommunity members during extended
hours and weekends.
Secretary o Education Arne Duncan,
who, as Superintendent o Chicago Public
Schools, oersaw the deelopment o a
thriing community-schools program, has
said, Where the school becomes a center
o community lie, great things are going to
happen.The more we open our school
buildings to the community, the more we
work together, not ust with our children
but the amilies, the more we create an
enironment where the students canmaximize their academic potential.
source Secretary o Education Arne Duncan, speaking on PBSs Charlie Rose program, March 13, 2009.
The Fostering Connections to Success
and Increasing Adoptions Act o 2008
(PL 110-351) requires that case plans
or children in oster care ensure
educational stability. The new proisions
are an important step toward helping
oster children attend school more
regularly, achiee more eery year, and
attain more oer time.
The law requires state child welare
agencies to coordinate with schools to
ensure that a child does not change schools
when entering oster care (unless remaining
in the original school is contrary to the
childs best interests). I it is in the childs
best interests to change schools, then
the law requires immediate enrollment
and transer o educational records.
It also permits states to claim the cost
o transporting a student who is in oster
care back to his or her original school,
as part o the oster care maintenance
payment. The law supports regular
attendance and high school graduation by
requiring states to ensure that all children
who receie Title Iv-E oster care, kinship
guardianship, or adoption assistance
payments be ull-time students or hae
completed a secondary school.
sourceFostering Connections Resource Center. Available at www.osteringconnections.org.
Education Support or Children in Foster Care
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RECOMMENDATION 3Prioritize, support, and invest in results-driven initiatives to transormlow-perorming schools into high-quality teaching and learningenvironments in which all children, including those rom low-incomeamilies and high-poverty neighborhoods, are present, engaged, andeducated to high standards.
way to monitor progress and improve
classroom instruction. This more muscular
approach by the ederal government may be
controversial in some quarters, but
it is aligned with the best and most promis-
ing proposals and initiatives supported by
leading research and advocacy organiza-tions, education coalitions, and private
unders. We applaud these steps and
encourage ongoing eorts to align strong
curricula, instruction, teachers, and
assessments between early care and
education and K3 education.
The continuing challenge is or all o us to
become more explicit, consistent, and
insistent about the importance o achieing
measurable results, in the orm o improed
student outcomes and educator eectieness.
The rigorous pursuit o results is a ormi-
dable and sustainable orce or change. It
allows diverse stakeholders to ocus on
common goals and aspirations, collaborate
across proessional and political boundaries,
mobilize joint action, and sustain eort. It
encourages comparisons o progress across
interventions and over time, making it
The U.S. Department o Education is
proiding an unprecedented leel o support
and leadership or school reorm, including
the competitive programs Race to the Top
Fund, Investing in Innovation Fund, and
Promise Neighborhoods Initiative. The
requirements or those unding streams,and or the American Recovery and Rein-
vestment Act (ARRA) o 2009, incentivize
some key elements necessary or school
transormation, including demanding,
content-rich curricula; powerul instruc-
tion; meaningul assessments; and
well-trained teachers.
To close achievement gaps, increase
graduation rates, and retain high-quality
educators, Secretary Duncan has placed a
priority on approaches that improve
teaching practices, put the best teachers in
schools where theyre needed most, and
turn around chronically low-perorming
schools. To move more students toward
prociency and world-class competitive-
ness, he has taken steps to promote
top-quality assessments and to create data
systems that track students rom the cradle
to college, linking students to teachers as a
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Although this KIDS COUNT Special Reportdoes not respond to the special concerns
and challenges o children who are English
Language Learners (ELL), we recognize that
this is an important and increasingly urgent
issue. We intend to support state and local
work to ensure that English Language
Learners are not let behind in the eort to
dramatically improe reading prociency by
the end o third grade.
All young children are capable o
learning two languages. Becomingbilingual has long-term cognitive,
academic, social, cultural, and economic
benets. Bilingualism is an asset.
Young ELL students require systematic
support or the continued development
o their home language.
Loss o the home language has potential
negative long-term consequences or the
ELL childs academic, social, and
emotional development, as well as or the
amily dynamics.
Teachers and programs can adopteective strategies to support home
language development even when
the teachers are monolingual English
speakers.
Dual-language programs are an eective
approach to improving academic achieve-
ment or ELL children, while providing
benets to native English speakers.
Spanish-speaking children enter
kindergarten with many social strengthsthat are the result o positive parenting
practices that need to be acknowledged
and enhanced.
Hispanic parents value high-quality
early education and will enroll their
young children i programs are
aordable and accessible.
source Challenging Common Myths About Young English Language Learners. Linda Espinoza (2008).
Available rom the Foundation or Child Development, www.cd-us.org.
Findings About Young English Language Learners
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possible to select the strategies most likely
to produce positive results in a specic
context. It pushes local systems and
practitioners to identiy the populations that
need to be reached and served in order to
achieve population-level and community-
wide changes or children. A results-
driven approach requires back-mapping
rom the goal to the setting o ambitious but
achievable targets and timelines, using data
to set baselines and track progress, makingreasonable adjustments in both targets and
strategies as the situation demands, and
holding everyone accountable or the
results, not just their eort.
A clear articulation o targets,
milestones, and timelines would be an
immeasurably valuable contribution to the
already unprecedented eorts underway to
achieve the goal set out inA Blueprint for
Reform: The Reauthorization of the Elemen-
tary and Secondary Education Act, which
calls on states, districts, and schools to aimor the ambitious goal o all students graduat-
ing or on track to graduate rom high school
ready or college and a career by 2020.112
The business community is not alone in its
adocacy o world-class standards or
student achieement. Secretary Duncans
Department o Education is well aligned
with those who call or higher, clearer, and
more rigorous state standards or reading
prociency in order to counteract the race to
the bottom and return the United States to
global competitiveness. One o the our
assurances states must make when applying
or ARRA school improvement unds is that
they are making progress toward adopting
rigorous standards that prepare students
or success in college and the workorce.
The state-driven Common Core State
Standards Initiative oers a promising
alternative to mandated national standards.
The Initiative is a partnership o the
National Governors Association, the
Council o Chie State School Ocers, ACT,
the College Board, and Achieve, Inc., with
nancial support rom several oundations.
Initiative leaders aspire to produce clear,
understandable standards with rigorous
content and application o knowledge
through high-order skills; that are
inormed by other top-perorming coun-
tries, so that all students are prepared tosucceed in our global economy and society;
and are evidence- and research-based.113
The K12 standards are intended to dene
the knowledge and skills students should
have in order to graduate rom high school
able to succeed in entry-level, credit-
bearing academic college courses and in
workorce training programs.114
To date, 48 states and the District
o Columbia have joined this voluntary
eort to develop and adopt internationally
benchmarked, evidence- or research-basedstandards or K12 English-language arts
and mathematics. We applaud this eort
and the remarkable progress made to date.
The drat Common Core State Standards
or English Language Arts and Literacy in
History/Social Studies and Science set
requirements not only or English language
arts, but also or reading, writing, speaking,
listening, and language in the social and
natural sciences, which underscores a
comprehensive and integrated approach to
teaching and learning. However, the move
to more rigorous standards should also
complement and reinorce the aspirations o
a more coherent, aligned, and integrated
birth-through-third-grade system. Thats
why we urge partners in the Common Core
State Standards Initiative to accelerate
eorts to link K12 standards to standards
or early care and education rom birth
through kindergarten entry.
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We cannot hae equity without quality. And we cannot hae
true quality without real equity. All children, regardless o skin
color, ethnicity or socioeconomic status, desere access to
high-quality education and a air and substantie Opportunity
to Learn.As a nation, we must recognize that the strength
o our public schools is directly and unbreakably bound to
our social, ciic and economic strength. Access to a high-
quality public education should be a guaranteed right that
eery American enoys, regardless o his or her race, ethnicity,
socio-economic status, or zip code.
roM Lost Opportunity: A 50 State Report on the Opportunity to Learn inAmerica, by the Schott Foundation or Public Education (2009).
aVailaBle at www.otstteepot.o
To protect against additional unintended
and pererse consequences o raising
standards, we also need to commit explic-
itly to making sure that all children hae
access to high-quality learning eniron-
ments, resources, and supports. Raising
standards or content and perormance doesnot, by itsel, close the achievement gap. In
act, the gaps are widest in some states that
have the highest standards, because low-
income children have ewer opportunities
(and more obstacles) to obtain the resources
and learning environments needed to meet
the standards. While holding students,
teachers, and schools to higher standards o
achievement, wethe ederal, state, and
local education systems; partners in the
standards movement; schools, nonprot
organizations, and private-sector partners;
and private undersalso need to ensure
access to the resources that aord every
child the opportunity to learn:
Adequate school unding;
Qualied, experienced teachers or all
students, especially the students who
need them most;
Extra support or English language
learners to help them master the
language and content, including extra
time or individualized instruction and
materials that are relevant;
Facilities that are sae, healthy, inviting,welcoming, and conducive to teaching
and learning;
Technologyto support learning and
assessment in the classroom and
online; and
Hands-on, literacy-rich activities
that make learning in and outside
school engaging and un.
We applaud those who are addressing this
issue and urge more widespread attention
to the critically important task o linking
rigorous standards with equitable opportu-
nities to learn.
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Prepare children or entry into schoolthrough high-quality early care and
education experiences, characterized by
well-trained sta; low student/sta
ratios; sae acilities; and culturally,
linguistically, and developmentally
appropriate curricula.
Ensure access to preventive health
care, especially as children enter school.
This may include not only expanding
enrollment in childrens health
insurance, but also providing childrenwith immunizations and comprehensive
screenings (vision, dental, hearing, and
developmental delays).
Oer a high-quality education that
responds to the diverse learning styles
and needs o students. When the
educational experience engages
childrens interest and meets their
learning needs, amilies are much
more likely to eel that going to school
is worthwhile.
Engage amilies o all backgrounds in theirchildrens education. Attendance improves
when schools create a wide variety o
opportunities or amilies rom all back-
grounds to support their childs learning.
Educate parents about the importance
o attendance.
Encourage amilies to help each other
attend school.
Oer incentives or excellent attendanceto all children, such as materials (pencils
or toys), acknowledgment in class or at
morning assembly, extra recess time,
opportunities to dress casually i
uniorms are required.
Conduct early outreach to amilies with
poor attendance and, i appropriate, case
management to address social, medical,
economic, and academic needs.
Coordinate public-agency and, i needed,
legal response or amilies in crisis.
sourcePresent, Engaged, and Accounted For: The Critical Importance o Addressing Chronic Absence inthe Early Grades, by Hedy N. Chang and Mariajos Romero (2008). Available at www.nccp.org.
A Proposed Comprehensive Responseto Chronic Absence From School
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RECOMMENDATION 4Find, develop, and deploy practical and scalable solutions to two o the mostsignifcant contributors to the under-achievement o children rom low-income amilieschronic absence rom school and summer learning loss.
Content-rich, demanding curricula and
powerul instruction by well-trained teach-
ers may not matt