WASHINGTON--States committed to providing literacy instruction for students from kindergarten through high school are best equipped to prepare all students for today's global information economy, according to a report from the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) released today.

The new guide, Reading to Achieve: A Governor's Guide to Adolescent Literacy, lays out the literacy crisis facing America in the 21^st Century. Additionally, it highlights several successful state-based programs that have helped governors in their efforts to improve reading achievement, raise high school graduation rates, increase the value of the high school diploma, and close the ever-widening achievement gap.

"Strong reading, writing and thinking skills have never been more important for success in school and the workplace than they are in today's information age," said John Thomasian, director of the NGA Center. "This guide will help governors tackle this critical issue head-on. Governors understand that nearly two out of every three jobs in the coming decade will require post-secondary education, and the fastest-growing job sectors require the highest literacy and education demands."

As the guide points out, only three out of every 10 American eighth-graders are proficient readers. This is an alarming statistic given that poor readers in elementary and middle school are those who are also most likely to struggle in high school and are most at risk of dropping out altogether. The problem, as the guide illustrates, is that for too many students today, literacy education ends in third grade. And yet, more than eight million adolescents between grades four and 12 are identified as "struggling readers."

Based on research and best practices, the NGA Center's Adolescent Literacy Advisory Panel recommended five strategies for governors and other interested policymakers to consider in their attempts to improve adolescent literacy achievement in their states:

• building support for a state focus on adolescent literacy;
• raising literacy expectations across grades and curricula;
• encouraging and supporting school and district literacy plans;
• building educators' capacity to provide adolescent literacy instruction; and
• measuring progress in adolescent literacy at school, district and state levels.

The guide details these strategies and also includes numerous examples of existing state best practices that address the problem of adolescent literacy.

• For nearly a decade, the Alabama Reading Initiative has been a voluntary program whose goal is to achieve grade-level literacy for all of the state's K-12 public school students. Working with the governor, state department of education and business community, the initiative has made great strides in addressing students' chronic reading difficulties.

• Delaware, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia all offer assistance to schools through partnerships that include a variety of stakeholders with training and expertise. In Delaware, for instance, the state department of education developed the Success for Secondary Struggling Readers (SSSR) Institute in consultation with the University of Delaware and with input from reading specialists from across the state.

• Florida's statewide reading office, Just Read, Florida!, coordinates the state's K-12 literacy-related initiatives.  To build upon the momentum of early reading achievement in the state, the office supports the implementation of the Middle Grades Reform Act, which requires all middle school reading and language arts programs be proven effective through research by 2008-09 and that middle schools with 25 percent or more students reading below grade level must develop reading improvement plans.

"Right now an unprecedented opportunity exists to focus national and state attention on the needs of America's more than 8 million struggling adolescent readers in grades four through 12," the guide concludes. "Governors are committed to improving and redesigning their middle and high schools to raise high school graduation rates and to prepare more students for success in postsecondary education and the workplace."

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