Third grade literacy is key to success in classroom, beyond
Often at the top of a long list of critical issues impacting each community’s growth and prosperity is broad access to high-quality public education. In an age where economic prosperity has reached historic heights, communities throughout the United States still struggle to deal with mounting pressure on their academic institutions, student achievement, and safety among a myriad of other issues.
Of all the challenges faced, however, national research supports the notion that 3rd grade literacy, in particular, is one of the primary determinants of an individual’s ongoing and long-lasting success in life.
The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, a collaboration of foundations, government agencies, business leaders, states and communities nationwide, released a national study finding:
One in six children who are not reading proficiently in third grade do not graduate from high school on time, a rate four times greater than that for proficient readers;
Twenty-three percent of these children drop out or fail to finish high school on time, compared to 9 percent of children with basic reading skills and 4 percent of proficient readers.
As one might expect, communities that exhibit a steady, or precipitous, decline in 3rd grade literacy rates generally experience falling middle and high school graduation rates, less post-secondary education placement and graduates, less desirable career opportunities and a higher potential of hardship in the years and decades that follow.
Conversely, states and counties that display steadily increasing trends in 3rd grade literacy rates, are well-positioned to create a community of productive citizens that reach their fullest potential in terms of academic achievement, skills attainment, career advancement and overall quality of life.
As it relates to Broward County, the Florida Department of Education recently released 3rd grade results from the Florida Standards Assessment for English Language Arts (ELA) for school year 2018-19 and Broward County Public Schools continues to demonstrate district-wide improvements year over year. Such improvements include:
Overall results are above state average and tied for the highest among Florida’s top 5 school districts;
Over the last four years, Broward public schools have the largest increase in the percentage of third grade students scoring at Level 3 or higher on the ELA assessment among the five largest Florida school districts, up eight percentage points since 2014⁄15;
Over the last four years, Broward public school have the largest decrease in the percentage of third grade students scoring at Level 1 on the ELA assessment among the five largest Florida school districts, down six percentage points since 2014⁄15.
The latest Broward 3rd grade ELA FSA results, particularly the four-year trends, validate the strength and performance of Broward public school educators, the School Board and leadership. Despite enormous challenges facing public education and by Broward public schools being the nation’s 6th largest school district, its continued progress and ascension among leading academic institutions can be attributed to the benefit of sustaining continuity of leadership over an extended period. This process is often referred to as ‘The Flywheel Effect’.
In Jim Collin’s best-selling book, entitled “Good to Great,” the Flywheel Effect is explained best:
“No matter how dramatic the end result, good-to-great transformations never happen in one fell swoop. In building a great company or enterprise, there is no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment. Rather, the process resembles relentlessly pushing a giant, heavy flywheel, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.”
Continuity of leadership allows any organization to enjoy the compounded benefits of executing against a clear and established plan. In the case of Broward County Public Schools, this plan is positively impacting 3rd grade literacy, perhaps the most critical determinant of academic achievement and future economic prosperity for coming generations.
As members of the Broward County community, we must remain unwavering in our commitment to advancing the positive trajectory of 3rd grade literacy trends in our schools and keeping the flywheel of academic achievement turning. Ongoing success in this area only promises to deliver exponential social and economic returns for our kids, our county and our community as a whole.