What can be done about so many young Arizona kids falling behind in reading?

PHOENIX — Children typically learn to read between kindergarten and third grade, but Arizona kids are falling behind when it comes to literacy.

Under 40 percent of Arizona third graders are reading at grade level, according to the Center for the Future of Arizona’s progress meter.

Education experts are concerned about the deficiency and advocating for ways to make young Arizona students better readers.

How can Arizona schools improve reading skills for young kids?

Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, said the issue is multifaceted, with factors like the child’s school, home life and accessibility to books weighing into reading skills.

Garcia said to raise the literacy rates, universal preschool should be implemented. That would improve access to core learning for low-income families, with children receiving basic literacy skills like identifying letters before kindergarten.

“It doesn’t matter their poverty level, with their culture, their race, where they were raised, their zip code; preschool is the single shot most important way to invest in literacy rates,” she said.

Garcia added another factor that could be improved is class sizes, with teachers currently spread thin among students who each need to learn how to read.

“When you walk into a kindergarten classroom and have 31 students that have a variety of different levels of reading … the teacher has to meet each one of those students … and try to get them all to the same level,” she said.

What can be done at home to help kids read better?

While changing the way kids are taught can make a difference, parents can also help their children improve their reading.

Lee Franklin with the Phoenix Public Library said the city has programs designed to help children based on literacy rates and data. Parents can bring their children to any library classes or programs for free.

Franklin explained that the library system has options like kindergarten bootcamps, where preschoolers can improve reading skills before entering school, and the summer reading program, which encourages kids to read for prizes. She said those all help children gain word recognition, which makes it easier to build on those learning blocks in kindergarten.

These free library programs are part of the solution to the low literacy rates in Arizona, but Franklin said the easiest way to help kids gain reading experience and skills is to find material about a topic they love.

“If they’re really interested in trucks, we have tons of options — picture books and emerging reader books or chapter books — that feature almost any kind of topic,” she said.

Franklin added that the learning programs for kids also help encourage parents to continue using learned skills at home, working with their children to improve and get them reading at grade level.

“Make it part of normal life, part of regular life, something that’s fun and enjoyable. It’s not a chore,” she said.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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