Where does your state rank on student reading?

The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s comprehensive report, “Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters,” this week drew attention to the problem of student underperformance in reading. Now that data has been integrated with the Foundation’s website, allowing you to see how your state ranks.

Interestingly, though only around one-third of students are proficient readers according to the Department of Education, states are usually doing well by their own assessments. For example, only 28 percent of Texas students are proficient readers by national standards, but 84 percent passed that state’s test. It seems national and state learning standards are not aligned, and we expect this to be an important topic when federal education programs are renewed, possibly this year.