FREE SCREENING - The Right to Read - A Documentary Film

FREE SCREENING - The Right to Read - A Documentary Film

Come join us for a special screening of The Right to Read at the Lake Forest Performing Arts Center. The Right to Read shares the stories of an activist, a teacher, and two American families who fight to provide our youngest generation with the most foundational indicator of life-long success: the ability to read.

The Literacy Crisis

“Illiteracy is one of the most solvable issues of our time. We have the research. We have the practice. We have to do what’s best for our children.” - Dr. Kymyona Burk, Foundation for Excellence in Education

In 2022, sixty-six (66%) percent of children did not meet the standards for reading proficiency set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Of those two-in-three children not reading proficiently, one-third of them were not able to even read at a “basic” level–the lowest level on the test.

Children who start behind often stay behind.

A study released by the American Educational Research Association found that children not reading by third grade are 4x less likely to graduate high school.

Fifty-four (54%) percent of U.S. adults–about 130 million people–are reading below a sixth-grade level, and this does not only impact an individual’s education.

When a child doesn’t learn to read, their chances of incarceration and homelessness go up exponentially.

Studies estimate that low-literacy levels among U.S. adults could be costing the economy $2.2 trillion a year.

Despite these dire consequences, the literacy crisis is often ignored despite being one of the most solvable issues of our time.

The issue is not that children simply can’t read or that some are born better readers than others, it is that the majority of American public schools are not effectively teaching children how to read.

Instead, they are using curriculums and teaching dogma rooted in literacy methods proven not to work.

How a person learns to read is one of the most researched questions of the past fifty years.

Unlike language, most children do not “naturally” learn to read, where they pick it up simply by being around it.

Evidence shows that the majority of children require explicit instruction in how to learn to read.

Surrounding a child with books is not enough to instill a love of literature; first, they must learn how to read individual words by understanding sounds, and then the blending of sounds.

To do this, a teacher must instruct them systematically in how to recognize sounds and letters to decode words. If it’s that simple, then why aren’t children being taught to read? It would be too easy to blame teachers or districts for low reading scores–or perhaps a pandemic–but the early reading crisis has been here for decades.

The cause of it comes down to deep ideological differences amongst curriculum publishers and education leaders that goes all back to the 1950s. At one point, the argument was so heated it became known as the “reading wars.” Some educators advocated for an approach that called for the memorization of whole words and the use of context clues, like pictures, to teach a child to read. Others argued for explicit instruction on how different letters and sounds could be turned into words, often known as phonemic awareness, phonics and decoding. In 2000, after years of debate, the National Reading Panel was assembled to create a definitive guide for how children learn to read. The research showed that the majority of children benefit from a more explicit and systematic approach to reading, which came to be known as “structured literacy” or, recently, “the science of reading.” Unfortunately, by and large, the approach that advocated for cues and memorization won out and a billion-dollar publishing industry–along with hundreds of influential careers–were built upon a method of teaching reading that was proven to not work for many children.

Literacy and Civil Rights

With the resources and evidence that we have today, we have the power to build a world where over 90% of children are reading at grade level.The question is: do we have the will to fight for every child’s right to read?

Don't miss this chance to be part of a meaningful conversation about education and empowerment.

Reserve your seat now!

Host or Publisher Kumon Math and Reading Center of Foothill Ranch