Education Week – Sarah D. Sparks
“It’s become a truism in education policy that reading is the gatekeeper to later academic success. In hopes of ensuring that success, a rising number of states bar promotion for students who do not read proficiently by 3rd grade…Yet even as retention gains traction among state policymakers, new research questions both the effectiveness of holding back students and the timing of reading development itself…The theorized cognitive shift from “learning to read” in 3rd grade to “reading to learn” in 4th grade may not be as clear-cut as traditionally thought, some experts say.”(more)