Academically, struggling readers have a much harder time keeping up with their peers, and they increasingly fall behind in other subjects. For the worst readers, those couldn’t master even the basic skills by third grade; the rate is nearly six times greater. While these struggling readers account for about a third of the students, they represent more than three fifths of those who eventually drop out or fail to graduate on time. Add poverty to the mix, and a student is 13 times less likely to graduate on time than his or her proficient, wealthier peer. By contrast, more than one in four poor, struggling readers did not graduate, compared with only 2 percent of good readers from wealthier backgrounds. Study shows that poverty has a powerful influence on graduation rates. The combined effect of reading poorly and living in poverty puts these children in double jeopardy.
Schools must address this problem, as well as providing effective instruction whenever students are present in the classroom. Similarly, research spanning 100 years has shown that students lose ground during summer, particularly low-income students. They lose an average of more than two months in reading achievement over the summer, slowing their progress toward third-grade reading proficiency. It is also, therefore, important for schools and communities to develop