June 10, 2010: Study shows many Massachusetts children reading below grade level
Thursday, June 10, 2010
By Jeanette DeForge, The Republican
SPRINGFIELD - A report from a Boston-based education group calls for wide-spread community involvement and improvements in early childhood education in the effort to teach children how to read.
The study, commissioned by Strategies for Children Inc., and funded by four different agencies including the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation, of Springfield, alerts people to the fact that 43 percent of all third-graders statewide do not read at grade level.
The study confirms concerns of the Davis Foundation, which began a community-wide initiative last year to ensure all children in Springfield are proficient in reading by the third grade.
“For us it was very gratifying,” said Sally C. Fuller, project director for The Davis Foundation. “It shows we are on the right track.”
The charitable Davis Foundation launched “Reading Success by Fourth Grade” last summer. The third grade is a key time for children to become proficient because fourth-graders need to use reading skills to learn.
In the most recent Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems scores, 36 percent of Springfield’s third graders scored proficient in reading.
On Tuesday the foundation is to reveal a set of strategies developed by a panel of local education experts and community leaders that members hope will boost reading abilities for all children in the city.
It will also announce a goal of having 80 percent of third-graders be proficient readers by 2016, Fuller said.
“We think the goal is a great goal. It sets the bar high and you have to set the bar high because no matter where you land you are headed for the top,” said Azell M. Cavaan, spokeswoman for the Springfield School Department.
The department, especially the reading directors, have been working closely with the foundation to develop the strategies, Cavaan said.
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester said Massachusetts’ students continue to score the highest in the country in reading, but referred to the study as “a great report” and said it addresses one of his biggest concerns that elementary and middle school literacy scores have remained the same for about seven years.
Read the full article at masslive.com.
