Every child reads proficiently.

Every child performs well in school.

Every child graduates from high school on time.

Every child grows up prepared to compete in a global economy.

2,000 days to get it right

These great expectations are attainable and within our reach—if children can read proficiently by the end of third grade. To make this a reality we must lay the foundation for learning. According to Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University, we have just 2,000 days to get it right. If we do, our success will translate into success for our children, and economic and social vitality for our state.

Our work must begin to strengthen the connection between agencies and systems that support children in these first 2,000 days of their lives from birth to kindergarten. Georgia must move to a coordinated, integrated approach to remedy our reading proficiency crisis. Developing an early care and education system, a birth to age 8 continuum, will move us forward.

"Making sure all children are reading on grade level, particularly by the end of third grade, is as much a human service issue as an educational one," said Commissioner B.J. Walker of the Georgia Department of Human Services (DHS). "We see the consequences in fragile families who show up everyday at the door of DHS. This is a war we must win." 

Reading is a learned ability strengthened by instruction, practice, and repetition. Brain development research tells us the pathways for language and vocabulary development are strengthened with every word spoken, book read, and positive interaction with adults from the moment a child is born. When children enter school behind their peers, their chances of catching up are slim. By fourth grade it’s too late.

We continue to adopt rigorous standards and curricula, and implement testing that effectively measures achievement and progress, while providing an early warning system to keep our schools and students on the right track. We must also honor the commitments we’ve made to educational reforms over the past few decades. Grade-level reading proficiency must become a state and national priority.

The good news is we’re not starting from scratch. There’s a movement among public and private stakeholders to close the literacy gap and raise the bar for childhood literacy and academic success.

A word of caution:

“We see promising local strategies already in motion in Georgia,” said GaFCP Executive Director Gaye Smith. “But we need to gain momentum, proceed in the same direction, and stay together.”

We should have great expectations of the system that serves our children—lawmakers, faith-based communities, agencies, chambers of commerce, military leaders, citizens, educators, parents, and the children themselves, so that every child in Georgia will read at or above grade level.