History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Poverty + poor reading = dropout
- 04-12-2011
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By Kathryn Baron/Thoughts on Public Education
Sometimes you have to wonder what the tipping point is for taking education research and moving it into action. It’s been years since educators recognized the importance of third grade as the year when children move from learning to read to reading to learn. Yet, reading proficiency for fourth graders in the United States has been fairly stagnant according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), rising four points between 1992 and 2009. Now comes a new longitudinal report, about as unequivocal as this sort of research can be, showing a direct link between third grade reading and high school graduation. Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation followed nearly 4,000 students born between 1979 and 1989 until they turned 19. It found that children who are struggling to read in third grade are four times more likely to drop out of or not complete high school as classmates who are proficient readers. (more...)
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