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After last week’s long and tortuous blog on “How To Save Newspapers” and Google’s answer on “How To Save The News” (not newspapers), it’s time for a break. Let’s try a shorter piece on “How To Save Children Who Can’t Read.” This is “closer to home” in most people’s interests and one I know a little about – not that I’m an expert, but I have had some experience in the subject (for better or worse) in our local Third Grade Academy.

You might say that we can regard this report as a lead-in for the Academy which is about to start its next go-round in less than a month. I think I can give anyone who is interested a personal slant on some of the background and hopes for the Academy (and maybe some of the problems). I am not going to start with our own experiences, but rather some more objective info from our friends over at the Indianapolis Star.

If you subscribe to the Star, you may have notice the major page one feature today (Sunday, June 13) on the “Summer Slide” in education. But again, I’m not going to start with any comments on that article (maybe later), but rather a pickup on some things appearing in the Star few days earlier. Incidentally, have you noticed a veritable blizzard of news articles and editorials printed in the Star and elsewhere since the first of the year on the crucial importance of a child’s ability to read by the end of the third grade? (I should give credit to our hometown paper,The Palladium-Item, which has printed supportive articles and editorials for more than two years.)

Now, to the subject at hand. On June 7, Bill Stanczykiewicz (I can’t even pronounce it), president and CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute, takes off on his findings in the recent report of the Annie E. Casey Foundation (possibly the nation’s leading educational research source), with the opening line: “Not enough Indiana students are able to read by the end of third grade.” An amazing discover, eh? He follows with: “Indiana’s third-grade reading scores rank 23rd in a nation that ranks only 11th in the world.” If you will pardon the comparison, this is the same conclusion that we amateurs here in Richmond reached three years ago as the motivation in starting the Third Grade Academy.

Bill S. (refer to name above) follows this with another conclusion: “According to the Casey Foundation report, students who are not able to read before entering fourth grade are likely to never achieve literacy skills. These students are more likely to drop out of high school, be unemployed, be unqualified for military service and live in poverty.” Two years ago, in our “Report Card” on the 2008 Third Grade Academy, appeared this statement: “Not reading on grade level at this age is a highly-correlated ‘early predictor’ of dropping out of high school.”

In the same “Report Card” we declared: “Research shows that those who do not pass at this stage are at a disadvantage in subsequent grades and rarely close the gap.” Bill S. quotes further: “The Case study states, ‘Without a dramatic reversal of the status quo, we are cementing educational failure and poverty into the next generation’.”

I’m not trying to gain points by showing that the Third Grade Academy preceded the Annie E. Casey Foundation research, only to affirm that we have something special going here in Richmond, thanks to the hundreds of local citizens who stepped forward to support this project. A few weeks ago, Dr. Tony Bennett, the Indiana Superintendent of Education, brought his top assistants to Richmond to find out more about the Third Grade Academy, and declared that it is the only such community-backed initiative in the state. He urged us to continue it, which we will be doing this summer.

That’s enough personal back-slapping for now. I just want to point out what a great opportunity we have here in Richmond to save a lot of our children from a poor educational experience, dropping out, and failure in life. Community support has been the key to success.

–Vic Jose

Vic Jose :: Jun.13.2010 :: Uncategorized ::

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