R.I.’s gains in 4th-grade reading overshadowed by disparity

A REPORT RELEASED Tuesday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that Rhode Island's achievement gap between low- and higher-income students is among the largest in the nation. / COURTESY ANNIE E. CASEY FOUNDATION
A REPORT RELEASED Tuesday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that Rhode Island's achievement gap between low- and higher-income students is among the largest in the nation. / COURTESY ANNIE E. CASEY FOUNDATION

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island’s fourth graders registered the third-largest gains in reading proficiency nationally over the past decade, according to a report released Tuesday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The report, titled “Early Reading Proficiency in the United States,” is based on data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which tracked fourth graders’ progress state by state, including the District of Columbia, for changes over the past decade.

Sixty-two percent of fourth graders in Rhode Island performed below proficiency levels in 2013, 9 percentage points less than the 71 percent recorded in 2003. Only Maryland and the District of Columbia performed better, with 13-percentage-point declines over the past decade, the report stated.

Foundation research shows that students who read well by the end of third grade are more likely to stay in school, graduate and find jobs after high school.

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“This is good news for Rhode Island,” said Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of Rhode Island Kids Count, in a phone interview. “We need to use that momentum to work even harder to close the unacceptably high achievement gap between higher income and lower income students as well as racial and ethnic minorities and English language learners.”

Rhode Island Kids Count is an independent nonprofit children’s policy group affiliated with the Casey Foundation’s national Kids Count project. The foundation works to improve the future of children in the United States by developing solutions to strengthen families, build paths to economic opportunity, and transform communities into safer and healthier places to live, work and grow.

Overall, all but six states made progress in improving reading proficiency rates from 2003 to 2013, the foundation reported. Despite that, two?thirds of all children in the United States are still not reading proficiently by the time they reach fourth grade, the foundation said.

Despite progress on reading skills, the report also found that Rhode Island’s achievement gap between low? and higher?income students is among the largest in the nation.

Nationally, the gap between students from low? and higher income families widened, with a 17 percent improvement seen among higher?income children, compared with a 6 percent improvement among their lower?income peers. Rhode Island mirrors this national trend, with 81 percent of low?income fourth graders reading below proficiency in 2013, compared with 45 percent of higher?income fourth graders.

Calling the educational work to ensure reading proficiency by the end of the third grade “urgent,” Bryant said Rhode Island’s positive gains in overall momentum can help offset that achievement gap between low- and higher-income students.

Rhode Island is focusing attention on key strategies shown to improve early reading proficiency, including improving access to high?quality early learning programs, reducing chronic absence in the early grades, and enhancing literacy strategies targeted to struggling readers, added Bryant.

Large gaps also exist among racial minorities and economic classes. The Casey Foundation report found that disparities remain in reading proficiency levels between black (83 percent not proficient), Latino (81 percent) and American Indian/Alaska Native (78 percent) children and their white (55 percent) and Asian/Pacific Islander (49 percent) peers, the foundation reported.

The urgency in improving reading skills is evident, according to the report, in projections that the U.S. is expected to face a shortage of 1.5 million workers with college degrees by 2020, but will have a surplus of 6 million unemployed people without high school diplomas.

Ralph Smith, senior vice president of the Casey Foundation and managing director of the Campaign for Grade?Level Reading, said a national achievement gap increase between low- and high-income children that approaches 20 percent is “unacceptable.”

“We must do more to improve reading proficiency among all kids while focusing attention on children in lower?income families who face additional hurdles of attending schools that have high concentrations of kids living in poverty,” he said.

For more information about the Casey Foundation or to read the full report, visit www.aecf.org.

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