READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

WRITER: GREG FRESCOLN

The average United States fourth-grader’s reading score in 2009 was above average in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, according to that publication of the National Center for Education Statistics. But that average U.S. student was below that of fourth-graders in 10 of the 45 countries and Canadian provinces involved in the study (behind the Russian Federation, Hong Kong, Alberta, British Columbia, Singapore, Luxembourg, Ontario, Hungary, Italy and Sweden).

Among the countries that participated in both the 2001 and 2006 studies, the number of countries that outperformed the United States increased from three in 2001 to seven in 2006. How can the average person help reverse this trend? Read to children on a regular basis. Daily reading will help increase comprehension and fluency.