Welcome to READ!
Join us in helping our children read proficiently by the end of third grade! Use the resources and information in this website and become a partner in the work.
Why Reading is Important
Researchers tell us that kids who enter kindergarten with poor early reading skills are usually poor readers in first grade and often remain poor readers all the way through high school.
- Ten to fifteen percent of kids with serious reading problems will drop out of high school
- About half of school-aged kids with criminal records or with a history of substance abuse have reading problems.
The Big Gap in Low-Income Households
There is also a big gap between kids from low-income households and those from middle- to high-income households.
- First graders from lower-income families have a vocabulary half the size of kids from higher-income families.
- By age 3, kids in low-income homes will have heard 10 million words. Those in middle and high-income homes will have heard 30 million words.
- A child from a middle-income family will usually enter first grade with about 1,000 hours of reading picture books with a parent or other adult. A child from a low-income family will average less than 100 hours.
Help Us Spread the Message!
Here’s an ad to use in your newsletters, parent information materials and brochures, which will help spread the message of the important of parents and caregivers in building their children’s early literacy skills.
