From the Sept. 30, 1996 Daily Report Card:
-> *2   READING BY THIRD GRADE:  MASS.'S GOAL FOR EVERY CHILD
->    In the "swiftest and most far-reaching action" taken yet by
-> the Mass. Board of Education, all third graders will be required to
-> take a reading test beginning next spring to see if they read at
-> grade level (Zernike, BOSTON GLOBE, 9/25).  If a significant number
-> of third-graders in one school are not at grade level, the state
-> could possibly take over that school.
->    "We keep talking about how reading is No.1 in importance,"
-> said Education Commissioner Robert Antonucci.  "It's time we get
-> serious."  Antonucci proposed the idea at a board meeting last
-> week and board chairman John Silber "seized on it immediately," notes
-> the paper.  "It would seem to me that if a school doesn't have 90% of
-> its students reading by Grade 3, there's something
-> deficient with that schools," said Silber.  He added:  "If a
-> child is not reading by the third grade, the rest of school is
-> going to be remedial."
->    According to the paper, it appears a consensus has been
-> reached about the importance of being able to read by third
-> grade.  Read Boston, a program developed by Boston Mayor Thomas
-> Menino (D), shares the learn-to-read-by-third-grade goal, as do
-> programs in other cities.  The GLOBE also points out that
-> President Clinton promised to put early literacy high on his
-> agenda for a second-term as president.
->    From the GLOBE:  "Until third grade, educators say, students
-> are learning to read.  After third grade, they are reading to
-> learn, and any student who can't read falls fast and far behind in
-> every subject."
->    Silber requested specific information to accompany each
-> student's test:  the native language of the child and whether the
-> child completed first or second grades at another school.
--- PCBoard (R) v15.22/M 10
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