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Dear John,

I've always believed that the moment a child moves from sounding out letters to disappearing into a book is one of the most momentous in their educational journey.

That moment is getting rarer. In 2012, 53% of nine-year-olds said they read for fun almost every day. Today, only 37% say the same, while among twelve-year-olds that number has dropped to just 14%. Even among students who can read, comprehension is slipping: thirteen-year-olds, who were in elementary school during the pandemic school closures, were found on the most recent NAEP to have fallen backwards to the reading scores of the 1970s.

The good news is that as of today, the science of reading has won the argument of how we teach our children to read. Forty-two states now have laws on the books that align instructional materials and teacher professional development to the science of reading, and states like Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee have proven that when adults change how they teach, scores can climb across the board. But while legislation can create the conditions for change, it is implementation that determines the degree to which students experience the change itself.
Read Bookways: From Bills to Bookworms ([link removed])

This is the case we make ([link removed]) in Bookways: From Bills to Bookworms, our new policy brief authored by VP of Policy Liz Cohen. This new report lays out seven problems and nineteen practical solutions to those problems that states can pursue no matter where they are on their literacy journey.

Drawing on hard-won lessons from a half-dozen states, Bookways provides a policy map to finish the reading revolution that’s already underway.

We hope you’ll read the full brief ([link removed]) and share it with your networks, as we work together to ensure that every student becomes a lifelong reader.

Derrell Bradford
President of 50CAN

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