In May 2010, the Annie E. Casey Foundation published a special report entitled Early Warning: Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters. This report launched the national Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, drawing a link between failure to read proficiently by the end of third grade, ongoing academic difficulties, failure to graduate from high school on time and chances of succeeding economically later in life.
Research confirms Early Warning’s premises and heightens the sense of urgency around third-grade reading proficiency. Federal and state efforts that target early care and learning have drawn new attention to many of the issues outlined in Early Warning. It focused on grade-level reading proficiency as an essential step toward increasing the number of children from low-income families who succeed academically, graduate from high school on time and do well in life and the workforce.
In his 2013 State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama called for investments that would establish high-quality early learning for children from birth to age five while increasing support for Early Head Start and child care services. Governors from 27 states also highlighted early childhood care and education as a priority in their 2013 State of the State addresses, and many have actually followed through with their proposals for action.
Other important issues have become priorities related to reading that were not reported in Early Warning. These include the need to address gaps in reading achievement in children with learning disabilities and those who are dual language learners.
In 2011, sociologist Donald Hernandez reported that children who do not read proficiently by the end of third grade are four times more likely to leave school without a diploma than proficient readers. His analysis of data on nearly 4,000 students shows that dropout rates were highest for children reading below the basic level; 23 percent of these children failed to graduate on time, compared to 9 percent of children with basic reading skills and 4 percent with proficient reading skills.
Hernandez further found that 26 percent of children who are poor in addition to failing to read proficiently, do not graduate. This is more than six times the rate for all proficient readers.
Researchers at the Urban Institute looked beyond the nation’s child poverty rate and analyzed 37 years of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Their findings support the hypothesis that early age poverty affects academic outcomes: Children who are poor from birth to age 2 are 30 percent less likely to complete high school than children who become poor later in childhood.
The bottom line appears simple enough, but implementation is challenging when parents are busy keeping food on the table for their families. Teach children to read as early as possible, keep them engaged and develop their love of reading. The rewards are immense.