Three nonprofits on Wednesday announced the donation of 115,000 new books earmarked for kids in low-income Arkansas families, a move community leaders say is another step in raising literacy rates for children by the pivotal third grade.
Education Commissioner Johnny Key celebrated what he called the synergy achieved by the nonprofits First Book, AR Kids Read and Goodwill Industries of Arkansas to combat the problem of "text deserts" -- homes where students grow up with no reading material.
"We're going to change the narrative," Key said. "In 20 years, they're going to write books, they're going to write academic papers, they're going to see Arkansas has [had] a miracle in education."
Disney-ABC Television Group donated the books after Arkansas came in first in an online vote in March put on by First Book, a national literacy organization.
Candace Radoski, director of national engagement for First Book, said she and four other First Book representatives were helping to direct the distribution of the books throughout the state from Goodwill Industries' warehouse in Little Rock, where the books are stored. About 100 volunteers have contributed to Goodwill, which a year ago began a program called Books 4 Kids.
Schools and programs that are eligible to receive books must have at least 70 percent of children coming from low-income families, according to the First Book website. Head Start programs, schools that receive or are eligible for Title I financial assistance, and other programs also are eligible. To apply, representatives of the schools can go to the First Book website at www.firstbook.org. Once distributed to the schools, the books are either given to individual students or go to libraries at the school.
Studies have increasingly found that third grade is a pivotal time in a child's development.
From kindergarten through third grade, kids learn to read. From fourth grade on, they read to learn, educators say.
"If you own your own book, it's amazing how important that is for a child this age," Pulaski County Special School District Superintendent Jerry Guess said. "I think teaching reading is critical."
After that age, experts say, students who cannot read proficiently have a much harder time learning in other subjects.
Several speakers at the news conference at Goodwill Industries of Arkansas' headquarters Wednesday stressed the importance of reading proficiency. Sixty-five percent of students who cannot read at grade level when entering fourth grade will drop out of high school, eventually receive welfare or spend time in the prison system, according to the AR Kids Read website.
It's that kind of effect that has caused business leaders in central Arkansas to take notice recently, said Charlie Conklin, executive director of AR Kids Read.
"For the past three years, education has been the No. 1 item," Conklin said.
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit that aims to improve literacy in central Arkansas through tutoring, AR Kids Read last year had more than 425 tutors who reached almost 1,000 students, Conklin said. This year, the nonprofit is requesting more volunteers to get to more than 500 tutors. In previous years, it has wanted to get to 600, although the schools have been running into space problems. People who wish to volunteer can find more information on the nonprofit's website, arkidsread.org.
Thirty-five percent of Arkansas third-graders met readiness levels for reading on the ACT Aspire exams in 2015, slightly above the national average of 34 percent.
Metro on 09/01/2016