Why is it so important for children to learn good reading skills in the early years of school?
• What is being done to help children learn to read well by the end of the third grade? • How does Reading First work, and what are the specific goals? • How will we know if Reading First is working? • Does No Child Left Behind support programs to help children build language and pre-reading skills before they start kindergarten? What’s the current situation–how well are America’s children reading? Our students are not reading nearly well enough. As mentioned earlier, results of the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress on reading showed that only 32 percent of the nation’s fourth-graders performed at or above the proficient achievement level, thus demonstrating solid academic performance. And, while scores for the highest-performing students have improved over time, those of America’s lowest-performing students have declined (National Assessment of Educational Progress 2001). What is the key to turning this situation around? Research has consistently identified the
