Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

Join Statewide Early Literacy Effort—Help Students Learn to Read by Third Grade

I am reaching out to invite your partnership in our statewide efforts to help all of California’s students read by third grade. Improving early literacy rates is one of the most important tasks that we take on as educators, and it is an urgent issue for our youngest learners every day. To do this, we need to establish a statewide collective baseline so that we can monitor the effectiveness of our early literacy efforts.

It is well documented that reading by third grade is an important benchmark for student achievement, yet it continues to be a difficult milestone for U.S. students to reach. That is why I set a goal to help students in California achieve reading proficiency by third grade by the year 2026.

To reach this audacious goal, we need to hear from you. I have asked each local educational agency to share a snapshot of how our K–2 students are performing in literacy through our Literacy Landscape Survey released in September. Please ensure that you send this survey to your local literacy coordinator so that your school or district is represented as we gather a statewide answer to this question: How are your earliest readers are doing, and how do you know?

If you have NOT yet shared the percentage of your earliest readers who are reading at or above grade level, it is critical that your students are represented as we establish a statewide collective baseline for early literacy. You can share this information in one of two ways:

• Complete the California Literacy Landscape Survey to gather answers to these questions. This survey remains open through the end of January.
• If you would prefer to share local data via email, please send the percentage of readers in grades K–2 who are at or above grade level according to local assessments to statewideliteracycampaign@cde.ca.gov.

I am currently pursuing legislation that would have California fund professional development for literacy instructors throughout our schools and districts. Stay tuned for updates as the legislation is introduced when the new legislative cycle begins on January 2. In the meantime, the California Department of Education will continue to share resources that can support you as you help your students become fluent readers by third grade.

Feel free to contact my office if you have questions or suggestions on how to help boost reading in early grades. We are confident that, together, we can provide our earliest readers with the instruction and support that they need.

Sincerely,

Tony Thurmond
State Superintendent of Public Instruction