Read all about it–Philly students come out on top!

PCCY had a vision for students in Philadelphia public schools four years ago, and, as we are wont to do, we quickly found partners and allies who shared that vision. We called it Read by 4th.

Steadily, most definitely, that vision is materializing.
District 3rd graders outperformed statewide results in PSSA scores that reflect reading levels (as well as writing, vocabulary, and comprehension), an extraordinary achievement turning heads across the Commonwealth. 

There are 660 more Philly 3rd graders who scored proficient or advanced than there were two years ago. According to recently release score results, 36% of students tested at that level–an increase of 6%. 

Conversely, 35% of the same cohort scored below basic two years ago. There’s improvement to celebrate there too as that figure has decreased by 8%. That’s 880 fewer students not making the grade.

This summer, Philadelphia’s Read by 4th campaign took the national stage by storm as the city hosted Grade Level Reading Week because District 3rd graders outpaced gains in reading in nearly every major city in the country. But how did we get here? 

In 2014, PCCY co-founded the Read by 4th campaign, formulating a leading-edge strategy to significantly improve literacy rates for children by the 4th grade. That strategy included establishing libraries in every classroom, training teachers in the science of reading and providing them with specialist reading coaches so they would learn how best to help struggling readers.  

Around that time, we persuaded the District to put into place a new strategy to focus on those students who need to make the biggest improvements to succeed in high school and beyond. Under the leadership of Superintendent William Hite, with school funding increases spurred by the Fair Funding campaign as well as support from the William Penn Foundation that made introducing new resources possible, the District made systemic shifts in how reading is taught in public schools.

These promising results show us our approach rooted in research, practitioner experiences, community integration and family engagement is working. Along with our campaign partners, we’re working to build on our progress to implement our six bold ideas, supporting: school readiness, home libraries, school attendance, quality instruction, out-of-school time reading support, and neighborhood Reading Captains.

Managed by the Free Library, Read by 4th includes over 100 local nonprofits and government agencies and has distributed more than 80,000 free books, recruited reading captains, and put a focus on reading in summer camps and after-school programs.