Effort To Improve Third Grade Reading Launches

A new report highlights low levels of third grade reading proficiency, but advocacy groups and state policy leaders are embarking on a new initiative to improve those numbers.

The report, “The Arkansas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading: A Call to Action,” ranks Arkansas 36th in the country in grade school reading proficiency.

The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and First Lady Ginger Beebe are coordinating efforts to raise the level of reading proficiency to 100% by 2020 through community grants and legislative policy proposals.

“We know that children who are reading proficiently by third grade perform better in school,” said Rich Huddleston, Executive Director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. “Once students enter fourth grade they are no longer learning to read. They are reading to learn. Students who are successful readers are more likely to graduate from high school, go to college, and become productive Arkansas citizens.”

“The goal of the Arkansas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is that by 2020, all Arkansas children will read at grade level by the end of third grade,” said Dr. Sherece Y. West, president and CEO of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. “We must prepare our students to successfully complete high school and enter college. Achieving reading proficiency by third grade is critical to a student’s future academic success.”

You can read the report at this link.