#WeRead - By the Numbers

By the Numbers

Children who do not develop key early literacy skills by the time they start kindergarten are three times more likely to eventually drop out of school.
Students who become proficient readers by Grade 4 will likely graduate from high school and be able to go on to college and careers.
More than a third of United States fourth graders do not have even a basic level of reading proficiency, and overall reading scores for young students have been essentially stagnant for decades.

According to The Nation's Report Card, 37% of children in the U.S. are reading below a basic level. What “below basic” means is that kids in fourth grade, based on the most recent NAEP assessment, are functionally illiterate. Almost 70% of low-income fourth-grade students cannot read at a basic level (May 2023).

National Data*

4th grade reading scores declined across all regions of the country and in 30 states.
This is the largest number of states with score declines in fourth-grade reading going back to the initial assessment in 1992.
This decline impacts all racial and ethnic groups.

*Nationsreportcard.gov

Oklahoma Data*

In 2022, the average reading score of fourth-grade students in Oklahoma was 229. This was lower than the average reading score of 235 for public school students in the nation.
The percentage of students in Oklahoma who performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level was 24 percent in 2022. This percentage was smaller than that in 2019 (29 percent) and in 1998 (30 percent).

*Nationsreportcard.gov

OKCPS Data

In 2023, the percentage of fourth-grade students in OKCPS who performed at or above the proficient level on the Oklahoma State Testing Program was 12 percent. This is a 3 percent increase from the 9 percent reaching proficiency in 2021.
In 2023, 65 percent of OKCPS 4th grade students performed below a basic level. This is a 7 percent decrease from the 72 percent of OKCPS 4th grade students reading below a basic level in 2021.

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