Working to ensure that children in Massachusetts have access to high-quality early education and become proficient readers by the end of third grade

Research is clear. Children’s ability to read proficiently by the end of third grade strongly predicts their chances of success in school and beyond. Yet 39% of Massachusetts third graders—including 60% from low-income families—read below grade level. Strategies for Children works to turn this around through its statewide policy and advocacy arm, the pioneering Early Education for All Campaign; and the 10-year reading proficiency campaign launched in 2010 with the release of the SFC-commissioned report "Turning the Page: Refocusing Massachusetts for Reading Success." Unless we close the state’s wide and persistent achievement gap, our innovation-based economy will lack the pipeline of skilled, well-educated workers it demands. The gap is evident long before children start school. Closing it must begin in early childhood.

The need is urgent
	Children who struggle with reading in third grade are four times less likely to finish high school by 19.
	Each high school dropout in Massachusetts, on average, costs $349,000 more over a lifetime—in decreased tax revenues and increased public assistance costs—than the average graduate.
	68% of Massachusetts jobs in 2018 will require a college degree, but only 54% of young adults in the state have completed college.

A bright start for children ensures a bright future for the commonwealth
	Children from low-income families who participated in high-quality early education are 40% less likely to need special education or be held back a grade, 30% more likely to finish high school and twice as likely to attend college.
	Investing in high-quality early education yields a 10-16% return on investment – better than the long-term average of investing in the stock market.
	A  child’s brain forms 700 new connections a second in the first few years of life.
	By age 3, children in low-income families have vocabularies that, on average, are half the size of the vocabularies of children from more affluent families. Children’s vocabulary in kindergarten is strongly correlated with their reading performance in 10th grade.
	Massachusetts has the most expensive child care in the nation, yet only one-quarter of preschool-aged children receive public support for early education and care.

Read “A Clear and Compelling Case for Action"