States Target Early Years to Reach 3rd Grade Reading Goals

Chris Canady, 10, reads from Monsters Don't Scuba Dive at the All-America City event last month in Kansas City, Mo., sponsored by the National Civic League. In 2012, the league will for the first time bestow awards on education initiatives, specifically early reading.

—Garvey Scott for Education Week

By Catherine Gewertz

In a bid to help more students read proficiently in 3rd grade—a skill considered critical to their future educational success—new laws and initiatives springing up around the country require educators to step up their efforts to identify and help struggling readers even before they enter kindergarten.

It’s not unusual for states or school districts to consider 3rd grade reading proficiency a key goal; research suggests it’s a pivotal skill. Policies against social promotion have hinged on it, and the earliest testing requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act attach to 3rd grade.

But the recent buzz of activity around early reading is notable for the way it looks backward from 3rd grade, articulating plans and requirements designed to ensure that pupils and teachers in preschool through 2nd grade are doing what’s necessary to reach the desired reading...