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A new White House and
philanthropic initiative focusing on young men of color will draw national
attention to the significant early literacy gap that sets up many
African-American and Hispanic students for academic difficulty and high
school dropout.
White male students are three times more likely to be reading proficiently
in the fourth grade than their African-American peers and more than twice
as likely as Hispanic boys, according to a data analysis by the Annie E.
Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT Data Center. The statistics are even
more startling for children of color from low-income families, with just 10
percent of the African-American boys and 14 percent of Hispanic boys
reading proficiently, compared to 25 percent for their white peers. 
Improving third-grade literacy
is among the priorities detailed by the 10 leading foundations working with
the White House on the My Brother’s Keeper initiative announced today.
Mastering reading by the end of third grade is essential for school success
since students begin to transition at that point from learning to read to
reading to learn. Those who do not hit the proficiency mark by then are
four times more likely to drop out of high school, research shows. Among
those who do not read well, the dropout rates are twice as high for
African-American and Hispanic students as they are for white students. (See
more data here.)
The foundations — the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Atlantic
Philanthropies, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the California Endowment, the
Ford Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Kapor
Center for Social Impact, the Open Society Foundations, the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation — have already committed
$150 million toward programs helping young men of color reach their full
potential in school, work and life. Several corporate sponsors are
also joining the initiative.
“The White House and these philanthropic leaders recognize that if we’re
serious about improving the lives of young men of color, we need to
intervene early in their lives and ensure that they achieve the critical
milestone of reading on grade level by the end of the third grade.
Children of color are represented disproportionately among those who are
missing that critical milestone and among those who are dropping out.” said
Ralph Smith, managing director of the Campaign
for Grade-Level Reading. “We need to equip parents with the tools they
need to nurture their children’s development and ensure that more children
arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed, attend school regularly and engage
in quality programs over the summer.”
The GLR Campaign is a collaboration of communities, states, foundations and
nonprofits nationwide working toward a common goal of improving third grade
reading rates. Its work dovetails with the goals of My Brother’s Keeper,
including the importance of healthy development, parental engagement and
quality early learning on the road to master reading. The White House and
philanthropic initiative will also focus on interactions with the criminal
justice system, ladders to jobs and economic opportunity, and healthy
families and communities.
In terms of early reading, the 2103 National Assessment of Educational
Progress shows that only 34 percent of fourth graders read proficiently.
The figure is 14 percent for African-American boys and 18 percent for
Hispanic boys, while 42 percent of white boys score proficient, according
to KIDS COUNT. Data also link children of color to several risk factors
associated with weaker reading skills.
- African-American and Hispanic boys are twice as
likely as white male students to live in low-income families.
- The rate of African-American babies born with low
birth weights is nearly double that for white babies. Low birth weight
is often associated with developmental delays.
- African-American boys and girls are two to three
times more likely to be chronically absent in the early grades, which
can erode early literacy gains, studies show.
See our data
sheet on Young Men of Color.
Launched
in May 2010, the Campaign for
Grade-Level Reading
is a collaborative effort of funders, nonprofit partners, states and
communities across the nation to ensure that many more children from
low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a
career and active citizenship. It focuses on reading proficiency by the end
of third grade, a key predictor of high school graduation and a milestone
missed by fully 80 percent of low-income children. For media inquiries,
contact Phyllis Jordan at pjordan@thehatchergroup.com or 301-656-0348.
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