Third Grade Reading Success
All children need to learn to read! Reading is the most crucial academic skill because it is the foundation for learning. Through third grade children are learning to read; after third grade they are reading to learn.
All children need to learn to read! Reading is the most crucial academic skill because it is the foundation for learning. Through third grade children are learning to read; after third grade they are reading to learn.
The Children’s Reading Foundation encourages school districts and communities to adopt the goal that 90 percent of students will read at or above grade level by the end of third grade. This goal ensures students in kindergarten, first, second, and third grades master basic literacy skills as they progress through their school years. It is not an easy goal, but it is essential and can be done.
When Kennewick (Washington) School District set this goal in 1996, only 55 percent of third graders were reading at grade level. It took 10 years to reach the goal, but they did it. Here’s how:
Detailed information about Kennewick’s process is presented in two books: “The 90% Reading Goal” and “Annual Growth, Catchup Growth”
The simple act of reading with a child daily has the potential to significantly reduce the school achievement gap and remediation expenses for K-12 students. Communities with a chapter of The Children’s Reading Foundation leverage the power of parents and caregivers to nurture strong readers!