Parents and educators only have a relatively few days – a fraction of the child’s whole life to get them set up for success. A school year is approximately 30 weeks and that equals around 150 days in a year, minus about 10 days for holidays or sickness and all that is left is 140. Kindergarten through the end of third grade is 4 years x 140 days = 560 days total. Your average life span is around 70 years = 25,550 days. All we have is the .02 percent of a child’s lifetime to give them reading skills that will have an impact on them for the remaining 98% of their lives!

Many schools teach reading skills from Kindergarten through mid to end of 2nd Grade, reducing the days from 560 to only 420 days.  For a child who struggles to acquire literacy skills they get further and further behind if not identified and provided assistance as soon as possible.  The achievement gap may become a “Grand Canyon” if ignored.

“By Third grade a student is no longer learning to read, but reading to learn.”

http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Literacy/stats.asp