the Why

For their life success, it is vital that children are reading well by the beginning of 4th Grade. This will more likely occur when children’s basic needs are met, when their child care providers know how to deliver high quality care and when, if present, a child’s special needs are addressed quickly and successfully. Parents that have sufficient resources and support are better able to remain in the workforce.

• Early childhood is the most important period of a person’s development.
• Until the end of 3rd Grade students learn to read—after this, they read to learn.
• Only 39% of Weld County children are reading at grade level by the beginning of 4th Grade; in other words, 6 in 10 aren’t reading to learn by age 8.
• United Way manages Weld County’s Early Childhood Council, the community collaboration where early childhood challenges are solved.

challenges

In Weld County, during the 2019-2020 school year only 39% of 4th Grade students were meeting expectations in English Language Arts. Since students are learning to read until the end of 3rd Grade and then reading to learn after that, this means that nearly 2 in 3 Weld County children weren’t reading well enough to take full advantage of the rest of their formal education.

This situation is difficult for each student and is costly for our community. As evidence, 70% of all incarcerated adults cannot read at a 4th Grade level, meaning they lack the reading skills to navigate many everyday tasks or hold down anything but lower paying jobs. This lack of reading ability keeps people at-risk all of their lives. It also costs the larger community money to have our neighbors relying on social services.

By 2024, the Reading Great by 8 community-wide goal is to increase the percentage of Weld County children reading to learn by the beginning of 4th Grade from 39% to 43%.