http://www.ed.gov/programs/readingfirst/faq.html

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What’s the current situation - how well are America’s children reading?

Not nearly well enough. Educators, parents and other interested parties have long acknowledged the general deterioration of our students’ overall reading achievement. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) provides perhaps the best single glimpse into the nationwide problem. From NAEP, we get a basic picture of how well children read, and the picture is not encouraging. Approximately 40% of students across the nation cannot read at a basic level. And as disconcerting as this general situation is, specific sub-groups of students are experiencing even less success.

* Almost 70% of low-income fourth grade students cannot read at a basic level. In other words, these children struggle with foundational reading skills like summarizing and understanding a story.
* Almost half the students living in urban areas cannot read at a basic level.
* Average-performing students have made no progress over the last 10 years, and the lowest-performing readers have become less successful over this same time period.

From a national perspective these facts are deeply troubling, and cry out for a vigorous and coordinated effort by all those with a role and responsibility in educating our nation’s children. Not being able to read at grade level is devastating to the nine-year old child who cannot do homework, enjoy a book or look forward to future grades with confidence and excitement.

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