Why Mentoring

10 Statistics About Illiteracy

1- in- 3 children in 4th grade are below the basic reading level in the United States.1

80% of low-income 4th-graders never reach reading proficiency.2

60% of young men entering prison in the U.S. cannot read at a 3rd-grade level.3

130 million adults in the United States struggle to read basic sentences.4

Each year, 1.3 million 4th-graders in the U.S. read below basic levels, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).5

According to a 2023 Wall Street Journal article, the Nation’s Report Card federal reading test showed that reading scores for 4th-graders dropped from 35% in 2019 to 33% in 2022, as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic.6

Students who don’t meet proficient reading standards by the end of 3rd grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school without graduating than students who pass the standards.7

High school graduation can be reasonably predicted by knowing someone’s reading skill at the end of 3rd Grade.8

More than two-thirds of children in the U.S. reported at least one traumatic event by age 16, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.9

According to the National Institute for Literacy, 70% of welfare recipients score low in literacy.10

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1. https://online.regiscollege.edu/blog/child-illiteracy/

2.https://www.aecf.org/blog/low-reading-scores-show-majority-of-us-children-not-prepared-for-future-s#:~:text=-Casey%20Foundation%20finds%20that%2080,future%20educational%20and%20economic%20success.

3. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2013/02/19/prison-data-court-files-show-link-between-school-truancy-and-crime/

4. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2023/09/09/literacy-levels-in-the-us/70799429007/

5. https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2021025

6. Randazzo, Sara, and Scott Calvert. “More States Threaten to Hold Back Third-Graders Who Can’t Read,” The Wall Street Journal, August 17, 2023. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/

education/more-states-threaten-to-hold-back-third-graders who-can't-read-19f9765

7. https://www.aecf.org/blog/poverty-puts-struggling-readers-in-double-jeopardy-minorities-most-at-risk and https://www.aecf.org/resources/double-jeopardy

8. https://www.ccf.ny.gov/files/9013/8262/2751/AECFReporReadingGrade3.pdf

9. https://www.samhsa.gov/child-trauma/understanding-child-trauma#:~:text=More%20than%20two%20thirds%20of,Community%20or%20school%20violence

10. https://www.literacyforallfund.org/facts#:~:text=Of%20adults%20with%20the%20lowest,educational%20scores%20and%20higher%20earnings.

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