At Reading Reimagined, we envision an American education system in which all students are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and beliefs necessary to be proficient readers, thus enabling them to advocate for themselves, their families, and their communities as they lead lives of limitless opportunity. Is it possible to eradicate illiteracy as a country? We believe we can do it by unlocking the great reader in every child.
Learning to read is a complicated undertaking, involving many different processes and skills. This includes decoding, vocabulary knowledge, inferencing, and much more. An existing research base provides important evidence for how students become strong readers, but too often that research is not translated into instructional materials. Moreover, important gaps remain in our understanding of how to best support students, especially our priority students, who have yet to achieve reading proficiency.
Despite significant effort and investment over the last decade, the American reading crisis is getting worse, not better. Currently, only one-third of American children demonstrate proficiency in reading. Our education system has fallen even further short for Black, Latino, and Native American students and students of all races experiencing poverty. It doesn’t have to be this way.
