Faced with these troubling statistics, organizations like the non-profit association ReadWorks are working to improve reading comprehension in children, in hopes of addressing problems before they start. To achieve this goal, ReadWorks researches, develops, and provides high-quality reading comprehension lessons and curriculum-based informational and literary passages for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The lessons are directly available to educators free of charge, and their impact on student achievement and teacher effectiveness is constantly measured and improved. To date, ReadWorks has reached over 10 million students across the country.
Literacy in the United States is at serious risk. According to statistics compiled by such organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Education Association, half of all American adults cannot read above an eighth-grade level. Others fare even worse: over 20 percent of adults read at or below the fifth-grade level, which is far below the level typically required to earn a living wage. Furthermore, studies have found that students are four times more likely to drop out of high school if they have not developed proficient reading skills by the third grade. With an estimated annual cost of $20 billion to businesses and taxpayers, illiteracy and poor reading comprehension are threatening to become a full-blown social crisis.
Faced with these troubling statistics, organizations like the non-profit association ReadWorks are working to improve reading comprehension in children, in hopes of addressing problems before they start. To achieve this goal, ReadWorks researches, develops, and provides high-quality reading comprehension lessons and curriculum-based informational and literary passages for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The lessons are directly available to educators free of charge, and their impact on student achievement and teacher effectiveness is constantly measured and improved. To date, ReadWorks has reached over 10 million students across the country. |
AuthorWilson Neely Corporate lawyer and Dealmaker of the Week Archives
July 2015
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