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Toddling Toward Reading: Selected Facts

• Only 60 percent of parents of children under five say they read to their kids every day.
• Children who are not read to early often start school at a disadvantage.
• Early language development and later reading skills are intimately connected.
• Studies show that children who enter kindergarten with poor language skills have a very hard time catching up.
• The single best predictor of how children will do in school is how much they know before they get there.
• Studies show children who are poor readers by the end of the first grade are likely to remain that way in the fourth grade.
• Children who struggle with reading are more likely to drop out of school in later years.
• Chicago's high school graduation rate hovers around fifty percent, but studies show that students who attend one of these centers have higher test scores, are less likely to use special education services, and are more likely to graduate from high school.
• Only half of preschool teachers have a four year degree — and often that degree has little to do with early childhood.
• When children are actively engaged — collecting leaves or playing with a purpose — they develop the social and early literacy skills that will help them succeed in school.

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