A Call for Interdisciplinarity!

Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters

The Annie E. Casey Foundation's latest report (2010) finds that kids who can read on grade level by the end of third grade are more successful in school, work, and in life. The report also reminds us that there is still a wide gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children. Sixty-eight percent of 4th grade public school students in the United States scored below proficient reading level in 2009. In Louisiana? 82%! Egad. Texas has 72%. With what we have gathered from decades of research in this area, why are we still seeing these kinds of statistics?
The "...current policies and funding streams are too fragmented, programs too segmented by children's age and developmental stage, and key interventions too partial to get widespread positive results... Twenty two years ago, while analyzing why so little of what is known to work gets applied in practice, Lisbeth Schorr wrote of 'traditions which segregate bodies of information by professional, academic, political, and bureaucratic boundaries', and a world in which 'complex intertwined problems are sliced into manageable but trivial parts.' The Foundation's latest report finds this to be true today.

For more information:
www.datacenter.kidscount.org/reports/readingmatters.aspx