The CrisisAs we all know, education in the the United States is failing too many students. The implications for opportunity and social mobility are devastating:

• Despite gains over the past decade, the US ranks 22nd in high school completion rates in the industrialized world.

• High school dropouts forfeit their earning potential, are more likely to depend on government programs, and are more likely to end up in jail – personal crises that cost the country an estimated $180 billion a year.

• Those who do make it to college are increasingly unprepared – the US now has the highest college dropout rate of any industrialized nation.

Sources: America’s Promise Alliance, “Building a Grad Nation” (March 2013); OECD, “Educational Indicators at a Glance” (September 2012); Henry Levin and Cecelia Rouse, “The True Cost of High School Dropouts” (NYT 1/25/2012); Harvard Graduate School of Education, "Pathways to Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Young Americans for the 21st Century" (February 2011)

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The Crisis: Literacy Education Today

Less well known – our failure to provide effective literacy instruction is at the root of our educational failure:

• Students who are reading below grade level by the end of third grade are much more likely to drop out than their peers.

• Students’ literacy de!cits have a ripple effect, undermining performance across disciplines. Students who lack comprehension skills perform below their potential in all core subjects.

• Grade 12 textbooks are now four grades below college-level reading – a de!cit that college-based remedial programs struggle to !ll.

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Sources: The Annie E Casey Foundation, “Early Warning: Why Reading By the End of Third Grade Matters” (2010); Marilyn Jager Adams, “The Challenge of Advanced Texts: The Interdependence of Reading and Learning” in Reading More, Reading Better (Guilford Publications, 2009); Common Core State Standards, “CCSS for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects - Appendix A: Research Supporting Key Elements of the Standards” (2010)

Literacy Education Today Perpetuates Social InjusticeThe state of literacy instruction has the biggest impact on historically underserved students.

Reading Performance

Black Latino White

40%

17%16%

34%

32%32%

26%

51%52%

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, NAEP Data Explorer, http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nde, cited in Whitney Tilson, “A Right Denied.” 2009 data,

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• Until the end of 3rd grade, most

children are learning to read. Beginning in 4th grade, they are

reading to learn.

• Up to half of the printed 4th grade

curriculum is incomprehensible to

students who read below that

grade level.

Below BasicBasicProficient / Advanced

Literacy Education Today Undermines Equity

All Students Graduate High School Start College Earn 4 Yr Degree

9%

41%

71%

100%

77%81%

92%

100%

Top Income QuartileBottom Income Quartile

The vast majority of students in the bottom income quartile forfeit the social mobility and opportunity that come with a four-year college degree.

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Ample research has shown which strategies work to ensure that students from historically underprivileged and low-income families reach their full potential as readers and writers.

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3

4

1

More time reading a range of challenging texts

Writing to boost comprehension

Timely feedback and collaboration

High expectations for students and for teachers

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Children need time to read deeply and widely, building

comprehension skills, domain knowledge and vocabulary

Research includes: Nelson et al., 2011; Dobbie & Fryer, 2011

Children learn to read faster and more strategically through note-

taking, analyzing and summarizing, and answering text-

dependent questions.Meta-data research includes: Graham & Hebert, 2011; Graham, McKeown, et al., 2012

The Common Core has officially raised the bar; literacy

benchmarking and progress monitoring are needed to hold

teachers and leaders accountable.Research includes: Weinstein 2002; Rubie-Davies, 2007; Angrist, Pathak et al., 2011

Students move toward mastery more quickly through rapid, data-

driven teacher guidance and peer-to-peer engagement. Research includes: Yeh, 2011; Seifried et al., 2012; Graham et al., 2012; Allen et al. 2011

We Know How to Accelerate Literacy

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LightSail Disrupts Literacy Education TodayLightSail powers literacy by combining the high standards of the Common Core with research-based reading and writing strategies – and putting them all at students’ and teachers’ fingertips:

• A personalized, Common Core-aligned library stocked with multiple genres of great writing that responds to a student’s interests and growing comprehension

• An interactive eReader with embedded MetaMetrics’ Lexile assessments – the most reliable and rapid measure of comprehension – and Common Core thinking tools

• Writing tools that support students as they learn to create Common Core-level evidence-based arguments

• A social networking platform facilitating rapid, differentiated teacher feedback and classroom collaboration

• Real-time actionable data on students’ reading habits for teachers, school leaders, CMOs and districts