Youth Literacy

The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), a strong partner of the Georgia Campaign for Grade Level Reading, celebrated the campaign launch at the State Capitol on March 5, 2014. The event marks Grade Level Reading Day and the beginning of Read Across Georgia Month. It also highlights Georgia’s commitment to ensuring that all the state’s children become proficient readers.

According to the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), only 34 percent of Georgia’s children are proficient or advanced readers when they begin fourth grade. Research shows that failure to reach this critical milestone increases the likelihood that a child will dropout before graduating from high school.

The Georgia Campaign for Grade Level Reading aims to tackle those numbers. The effort is led by a network of public and private partners working statewide and in local communities to ensure that all of Georgia’s children learn to read by the end of third grade so that they can read to learn throughout school and life. Recognizing that literacy development begins at birth, the campaign is focused on children from birth through the important third grade milestone. 

The campaign comes with the goal of helping every Georgia child read proficiently by the third grade.