How well are your local third graders reading?
Illinois lowered its standards in 2025, but over half of third graders still couldn’t read at grade level. It’s a critical milestone. See how your students did.
Even under loosened proficiency standards, over half of Illinois third graders couldn’t read at grade level in 2025.
How well did your local public school prepare children to read by the critical third-grade milestone?
Assessment data from spring 2025 shows Illinois students across grades continued to struggle to read.
But the data is particularly concerning when it comes to third graders.
If a child has not learned to read by the end of third grade, that child is likely to struggle throughout his or her education. That’s because fourth grade is when students move from learning to read to reading as their main method of learning.
Clearly, there is a literacy crisis in Illinois, and it threatens the future of Illinois’ children.
But this crisis can be reversed. Five proven reforms used in other states can be promoted by Illinois lawmakers and embraced by local school districts:
- Provide an early universal reading screening for every student in first through third grades to identify reading deficiencies.
- Provide reading interventions for any student in first through third grades with a reading deficiency.
- Notify parents and keep them engaged in their student’s reading deficiency diagnosis and intervention.
- Ensure schools use proven, science-based instruction methods to teach reading.
- Discuss and determine grade promotion decisions with parents and teachers for students whose reading deficiencies are not remedied by the end of the school year.
Illinois’ young students have a literacy problem, but there are solid solutions. Adults just need to help them by making the right decisions.