In a recent post, we reported that early reading success predicted later algebra success, which, in turn, predicted college success. The reading, math, success connection is clear and unmistakable. The bottom line is that there is very little that students can do if they cannot read. Simply put, reading skills are the best indicator of current and future student success.

A recent study indicates that reading skills are the best predictor of future success and earning power. However, two-thirds of third graders students are reading below the proficient level and the situation is not improving.

The persistence of the "achievement gap," often attributed to differences in family incomes and first languages, is "profoundly disappointing to all of us who see school success and high school graduation as beacons in the battle against intergenerational poverty," wrote Leila Feister, the author of the report, "Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters" from the Annie B. Casey Foundation.

To get all students reading at grade level by the end of third grade, the foundation report offered these recommendations:

• Improve health and education in early childhood, starting with healthy births.
• Encourage and enable parents and caregivers to be involved in children's educations. Families should read to and converse with their kids to help develop language skills.
• Use data-driven initiatives to transform low-performing schools into high-quality teaching and learning environments.
• Reduce the chronic absences
• Reduce summer learning loss that often contributes to the under-achievement of children from low-income families

Principal Pointers

• Even though the report focuses on early readers, it has important implications for secondary leaders:
• Due to the fact that most schools stop reading instruction at the end of the third grade, it is highly unlikely that student will improve reading skills on their own.
• Under-resourced students need explicit literacy instruction at every grade level or their skills will not improve.
• Even if every third grader were reading at the proficient level, we would need to continue literacy instruction at every grade level in order to compensate for the lack or language enrichment that under-resourced students experience outside of the school.
• The longer we wait to rescue struggling readers the more challenging is our task.
• Remediation is expensive, time consuming, and often not successful.

We cannot afford to allow students to fall farther and farther behind. We must intervene early and often.