Students who can’t read on grade level by the 3rd grade are four times less likely to graduate from high school on time than proficient readers, according to a new study my colleague Sarah D. Sparks writes about over at Inside School Research.
If poverty is added to the mix, the chances are even worse. As Sarah explains, a student who has lived in poverty AND was reading below grade level in the third grade is 13 times less likely to graduate on time than a student who was proficient and was not poor.
Here’s a link to a press release and the report itself, “Double Jeopardy: How Poverty & Third-Grade Reading Skills Influence High School Graduation,” which was commissioned by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.