Image 1 For some, learning to read and spell is straightforward, while for others, it's challenging. Why? Unless faced with the challenge, it is unlikely you thought about ‘how’ to read and spell. You just did it. As a struggling reader in the 1950's, I did not question memorizing words, copying sentences, or learning spelling lists. I just did my best to do what teachers asked. But I was always in the lower reading groups…never at the bottom, but keenly aware that I wasn’

HOMEReading scores in the United States have not bounced back to where many educators hoped they would be. The clearest national signal comes from NAEP, often called the Nation’s Report Card. It shows that large shares of students in 4th and 8th grade are still reading below the level associated with strong grade-level performance. One caution matters before looking at the numbers: “reading on grade level” is not measured the same way everywhere. States set their own cut scor