According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), approximately 40% of our nation's students cannot read at a basic level. Almost 70% of low-income fourth-grade students cannot read at a basic level, while nearly 50% of the students in urban areas cannot read at a basic level. Furthermore, the nation's average-performing students have made no progress over the last ten years, and the lowest-performing readers have become less successful over this same time period.

Federal research has identified the critical skills that young students need to become good readers, and our nation's schools have proven that rigorous, scientifically based reading instruction can and does work with all children.

Our goal as educators is to not only build strong readers, but to foster a love of reading in our students. Successful reading and language arts studies give students the opportunity to interact with the selections, analyze what they read, and enjoy the experiences that great literature has to offer.

Learn more about reading/language arts programs from Houghton Mifflin: