According to the 2019 National Center for Education Statistics report, “only 35% of students nationally develop proficient reading skills by fourth grade,” Hank Fien, the director of the National Center on Improving Literacy at Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, said at a panel on Feb. 23.
The panelists included Lillian Duran, associate professor and associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Education and Special Education Program at the University of Oregon, Kymyona Burk, a senior policy fellow at ExcelinEd and Lakeisha Johnson, assistant professor in the School of Communication and Information at Florida State University.