NC: Read to Achieve doesn't achieve much

-->  In 2012, in an effort to increase elementary reading achievement in North Carolina, and to end a de facto policy of “social promotion” that places more emphasis on age than on demonstrated proficiency, the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation that required the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to develop and implement a program to support on-grade reading mastery for all 3 rd grade students. The initiative is commonly referred to as Read to Achieve (RtA). 

The RtA policy provides multiple supports for students who do not demonstrate reading proficiency by the end of 3 rd grade, including an optional reading camp between the 3 rd and 4 th grade years. For students who do not become proficient by the end of the summer, supports include supplemental tutoring and enhanced reading instruction during the next school year. Implementation occurs at the school district level but is funded primarily by the state. 

After five full years of implementation, has the investment been worth it? The history of 3rd and 4th grade End-of-Grade (EOG) reading scores has not been promising, with test scores either remaining relatively flat (4 th grade) or even slightly declining (3 rd grade) since the start of the program; however, global measures like those may hide important gains for the 3 rd and 4 th graders most directly impacted by the policy. 

To begin to uncover the academic impacts of RtA, this report presents analyses of 4 th and 5 th grade reading test scores for the state’s traditional public school students who first experienced the RtA initiative as 3 rd grade students during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years .