Is Your Child Reading at Grade Level?

Most parents think their child is reading at grade level. However, nationwide, only 33% of 4th graders and 31% of 8th grade students are proficient readers according to the Nation’s Report Card. 

You can quickly find out what grade level your child is reading at with 40L’s quick screen reading grade level test. 40L also has a quick, easy to give fluency test to see if your child is reading with fluency.

If your child is not reading fluently, you can give the MWIA. It is a reading diagnostic test that compares the speed and accuracy of reading holistic, or sight words vs. phonetic words.  A slowdown in reading indicates problems from sight word methods, as well as more errors in phonetic words. Proper phonics teaching results in few errors and consistent speed on both sections of the MWIA.  For more information, see Understanding and Using MWIA Scores.

A Texas organization called At Grade Level was formed to help parents find out if their student in Texas is reading at grade level or not. They have Texas state specifics as well as grade level tests that can be used by any parent in any state. This test is paragraph based and takes a bit longer to give than 40L’s quick screen reading grade level test.

Education Consumers Founders is a group founded to help parents as consumers of education understand the state of education in their local area. They have reading achievement graphs showing how each school and district is doing for reading in every state. This shows how well your local school is teaching their students to read. Graphical results for Kentucky and New Mexico are shown below.

The better your child reads, the easier and faster it will be to do their homework in any subject. Good reading is even helpful in math—it is much easier to read the instructions and do word problems when you can read well.  40L’s easy to use syllables spell success lessons teach reading to the 12th grade level. They are free, and the video instruction makes them easy for a parent to use.  40L also has lists of good books to improve reading on its reading resources page.

Many schools teach reading with balanced literacy instruction instead of the proven method of phonics. Emily Hanford’s podcast series “Sold A Story” explains how and why the disproven method of balanced literacy and its cueing practices remained in schools.

While many schools are now switching back to phonics, phonics instruction usually ends in 3rd grade. Some students continue to make progress in reading, but many students need continued instruction to improve. Phonics instruction for older students can be tied to spelling and morphology for maximum efficiency.

Reading skill is more highly correlated with earnings than IQ; the correlation is shown in the graph below. Reading well will set up your child for success in both school and life, able to read and learn about anything with ease.