By John Mullen
Multiple researchers have identified a troubling connection between illiteracy, academic failure, delinquency, incarceration, and recidivism. Students who read below their expected grade level are more likely to struggle in school, face difficulties finding and maintaining employment, and become involved with the justice system.
The U.S. Department of Justice has highlighted the connection between academic failure, delinquency, violence, and crime, particularly when students experience reading failure.
The Importance of Early Reading Skills
The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant educational disruptions and resulted in valuable learning time being lost. Unfortunately, many students continue to struggle with reading and mathematics.
Large urban school districts continue to spend substantial amounts of money per student while many students fail to achieve expected proficiency levels. The issue is not simply how much we spend on education, but whether our children are actually learning the skills they need to succeed.
Reading proficiency must become a national priority.
Mississippi Shows That Improvement Is Possible
Mississippi offers an encouraging example of what can happen when schools make literacy a priority. The state has dramatically improved its fourth-grade reading performance, moving from near the bottom of national rankings to among the nation's top-performing states.
Its approach has included greater accountability, reading coaches, and early intervention for struggling students.
The lesson is clear: students can improve when schools establish high expectations and provide the resources and support necessary to meet them.
Steubenville, Ohio, has also demonstrated that significant improvements in student achievement are possible when communities and educators focus on literacy and accountability.
Every Child Deserves the Ability to Read
Third grade is a critical point in a child's education. Students increasingly move from learning to read to reading to learn, making early literacy intervention essential.
Children who struggle should receive additional instruction, tutoring, reading support, and other interventions before falling further behind.
Frederick Douglass demonstrated the transformative power of literacy throughout his life. Learning to read can provide a person with knowledge, independence, employment opportunities, and greater freedom.
America must take reading failure seriously.
Every student deserves the opportunity to become a proficient reader, and our public schools must be held accountable for providing the instruction and support necessary to make that happen.
If we want stronger communities, better employment opportunities, and less involvement with the criminal justice system, we must start by teaching our children to read.
