The Annie E. Casey Foundation has a new report that updates research about 3rd grade reading levels.  It follows up the 2010 Early Warning: Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters report.  In this new research, it has been found that the issue may be even more urgent than previously realized.

You can read the entire document here in pdf format.  Here are some of the major findings:

• Early-grade reading proficiency in the US continues to be unacceptably low for low-income students and students of color
• The gap between struggling and fluent readers does not improve over time
• There are strong correlations between failure to read proficiently and failure to graduate from high school
• The issue is no longer just about breaking generational poverty cycles, but also about preventing new ones from forming due to downward mobility from the middle class