Excellent, research-based reading instruction is necessary for students in primary grades. In 2002, the federal law, “No Child Left Behind set the goal that all students in every state shall be proficient by 2014 (No Child Left Behind, 2002). In 2015, Act 284 (Read to Succeed) was adopted by South Carolina to address literacy performance and place a comprehensive system of support to ensure that South Carolina’s students graduate on time and with the literacy skills they need to succeed in college, careers, and citizenship (Prescott, Bundschuh, Kazakoff,& Macaruso 2018). The research seems clear: if a child cannot read proficiently by the end of third grade, they face the daunting task to have success in school and beyond (Center for Public Education, 2015). The Center of Public Education (2015) found that third grade is the pivoting point in reading because, in fourth grade, these students use a wider variety of texts. Moreover, these able readers will be able to extract and analyze new information and enrich their vocabularies in reading. (Prescott, Bundschuh, Kazakoff, 2018). Struggling readers rarely do not catch up with their peers academically and are more likely to drop out of high school, which will lower their earning power as adults, which could cost society around $300,000 in lost earnings, taxes and productivity (Prescott, Bundschuh, Kazakoff, 2018). Many of these struggling readers are disproportionately poor students and students of color in a subsequent report, the Foundation’s analysis of reading scores on the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, commonly known as the Nation’s Report Card). In 2017, the NAEP found that the average score gap between higher and lower-income families was 29 points and for children of color, the gap in score gap was 20 points (NEAP, 2017). Although this seems like a small amount really could be insurmountable, faced with this seemingly insurmountable issue, many states, including South Carolina are working to improve third-grade reading assessments to help pinpoint the issues, interventions for struggling readers and the possible retention of those students who are not meeting grade-level markers (Read to Succeed, 2018).

A school principal, reading specialists, teachers, parents and community stakeholders in this local district want to improve students in third-grade reading proficiency levels. This study will hopefully provide vital information to other schools facing similar concerns about strategies and instructional tools that would help to enhance student learning and teacher quality and self-efficacy. Also, this study will help teachers to employ an integrated curriculum is a valuable resource for all grades to implement to promote student success in reading and comprehension of texts. Furthermore, the findings of this study may be of interest to any public school in South Carolina or in the nation that is need of improvement as mandated by the federal government to improve and close the achievement gap, promote rigor, accountability which will help prepare students to graduate and move on to become a productive citizen.

This study’s objective is to enrich the literature on beneficial methods of literacy instruction to utilize when working with a student’s reading level. The classroom teacher is the one that can put the results of this study into practice on a daily practice when working with their students. Getting the results to these classroom teachers can be accomplished and made available to them through college classes, workshops, professional development, and reading materials. Studying how to increase reading achievement can promote social change to help teachers and schools nationwide in meeting the federal government’s adequate yearly progress to avoid school restricting, closing or losing teachers.

Nations Report Card: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2017/sta…

Nations Report Card: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2017/sta…

Prescott, J. E., Bundschuh, K., Kazakoff, E. R., & Macaruso, P. (2018). Elementary School-Wide Implementation of a Blended Learning Program for Reading Intervention. Journal of Educational Research, 111(4), 497–506. Retrieved from https://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1182036&site=eds-live&scope=site

Public Education, C. (2015, March). Learning to Read, Reading to Learn Why third-grade is a pivotal year for mastering literacy. Retrieved January 2, 2019, from https://www.nsba.org/sites/default/files/reports/N…

Read to Succeed: https://screads.org/read-to-succeed/