Last year, California appeared ready to join 40 other states by mandating a screening tool for dyslexia — a learning disorder that affects 1 in 5 readers. The test would have flagged first graders who need extra help matching letters to sounds, connecting sounds to words, linking words in a sentence.
The stakes were high. In California, nearly 60% of third-graders are not reading at grade level, a crisis with potentially disastrous consequences. Research shows that students who aren’t proficient readers by third grade are more likely to miss school, more likely to be disciplined, more likely to drop out.