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March is National Reading Month and Haverhill Promise is asking the public to take its literacy champion pledge in support of improving grade level reading proficiency for all Haverhill children.
Haverhill Promise is asking everyone to add their name and email to the coalition of educators, leaders, businesses, nonprofits, caring citizens and others. Haverhill Promise says “investing in early literacy is an investment in lifelong success. The data overwhelmingly supports the idea that proficiency in reading by the third grade is a predictor of future academic achievement. By addressing literacy at its foundation, we are laying the groundwork for success throughout a child’s academic journey.”
The pledge may be taken online here.
Organizers note 71% of Haverhill third graders are either not or only partially meeting expectations on their reading assessments, 60% of low-income families have no children’s books in the home, 70% of children whose parents have low literacy will likely be at the lowest reading levels in their grade and a child who has not learned to read well by the end of third grade is four times more likely to drop out of high school. Include poverty, they add, dropout rates multiply by 13.