Early Grade Reading
Early Grade Reading: Building on Kindergarten to Sustain Progress
Reading skills in the early grades support future learning in all subjects, not just language arts.10,11 Strong third-grade reading skills are linked to success in high school, lower dropout rates, and higher college enrollment.
Third-grade reading indicates whether the education ecosystem is working together to sustain early literacy gains. This includes access to books at home and in community spaces, support for families to read with their children, attention to health barriers such as hearing, vision, or speech challenges, and instruction in first and second grade that aligns with and builds on what students learned in pre-K and kindergarten. Above all, it requires strong coordination across the systems that support students, including families, early education, schools, health providers, libraries, and community organizations. Monitoring third-grade reading allows for Boston’s partnerships to develop targeted initiatives and programming to provide early support to ensure students stay on track to succeed well beyond elementary school.
How Are Boston Third Graders Performing in Reading?
The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) is administered in the spring and includes an assessment on English language arts. Third-grade English language arts skills have improved slowly since 2022, but most third graders are still not meeting grade-level expectations. In SY 2024–2025, 32.5 percent of third graders met or exceeded expectations. Results varied across student groups, with Black, Latino, and male students meeting the benchmark at lower rates compared to their peers. Low-income students and multilingual learners show slight increases with 22.2 and 11.2 percent meeting the benchmark, respectively. 8.6 percent of students with disabilities met the benchmark. These outcomes indicate the need for greater system-level coordination for early reading development in homes, communities, and schools to ensure equitable outcomes.
What Is Being Done to Support Reading Success by Third Grade?
Research shows that students who have rich literacy experiences outside of school progress better.11 Sustained reading success requires coordination across multiple partners. The Mayor’s Office of Early Childhood has partnered with the Boston Public Library, Boston Public Health Commission, community organizations, and institutions to create a citywide effort to foster early reading. Boston Reads brings community partners together to make reading a meaningful part of students' daily lives.
The Boston Family Engagement Network, made up of nine neighborhood centers, partners with Boston families to shape programming for Raising a Reader and provides parents with tools for interactive reading outside of school. Partnerships supporting parents can increase the quality of parent-child reading interactions at home, which strongly predicts reading outcomes in addition to school. Collaborative efforts like Raising a Reader and Boston Reads have made reading more visible and accessible, which is especially important for students who may have limited access to books or technology at home. Yet gaps in literacy persist for historically underserved students, with disparities evident by race, ethnicity, gender, and disability status.
To address these disparities, Boston Public Schools is focusing on several strategies, including equitable literacy, high-quality instructional materials, inclusive learning, and Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports (MTSS). Together, these approaches expand access to high-quality, evidence-based reading instruction that reflects students’ identities and fosters a sense of belonging, while also enabling early identification of struggling readers and providing targeted support.
What Is a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS)?
A Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) is a framework that helps school districts ensure every student receives a high-quality education. It uses data-driven decision-making, progress monitoring, and evidence-based supports delivered at increasing levels of intensity to proactively address students’ strengths and needs. Designed to support the whole student, MTSS integrates academic, social-emotional, and behavioral supports while emphasizing equitable access and inclusive practices that meet the needs of all learners.12
Spotlight: Boston Reads
Boston Reads is a citywide effort that includes three initiatives designed to increase families’ access to literacy resources, ensure that reading is a regular part of students’ lives in Boston, and promote culturally responsive materials that reflect students’ identities and experiences.
Boston Reads Day brings community volunteers into classrooms to model a love of reading. On October 29, 2025, more than 400 community volunteers read in kindergarten through second-grade classrooms, connecting books to curriculum and demonstrating that reading is valued beyond school walls. In February, volunteers read in pre-K classrooms, with specific focus on recruiting multilingual volunteers to ensure inclusive reading experiences.
Boston Story Stops use the city itself as a reading resource, helping families explore literacy through landmarks, parks, and public spaces. This approach removes barriers (cost, transportation) that some families face in accessing books and builds neighborhood identity around literacy.
Boston Family Engagement Network and Raising a Reader provide families with tools and support for interactive reading at home, recognizing that conversations around books matter as much as the books themselves.
Where Is More Support Still Needed?
These efforts face real constraints that require collective action. Teachers need sustained, embedded coaching to implement evidence-based practices. Boston has made notable progress in building stronger connections in teaching across early elementary grades, with research showing that aligned instruction from pre-K through first grade supports faster literacy gains and sustains early learning benefits as students transition into the early grades.13 For example, over 800 BPS educators have engaged in after-school learning on evidence-based practices and the science of reading. School systems committed to building on this learning will benefit from further partnership and investment to ensure all teachers have sustained embedded supports to apply this learning in practice.
Why This Matters for the Full Pipeline and What’s Next for Boston?
The achievement gaps visible in third grade rarely close on their own. The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows sustained effort in reading can move the needle, particularly when effort is coordinated across schools, families, and communities.14
What's next:
- Deepen family partnerships. Expand reading programs in neighborhoods with the highest need. Use data to identify which families are not yet connected and remove barriers to participation (language, transportation, scheduling).
- Ensure equitable access to tutoring and intervention. Not all students who struggle in reading have equal access to support. Coordinate across Boston schools, nonprofits, and community organizations to ensure that the most underserved students get the most intensive support.
- Use health systems as partners. Many reading struggles have root causes such as hearing loss, vision problems, and speech delays, which health systems can identify and address. Boston hospital and public health sectors and school-based health centers should coordinate to identify and support students facing these barriers.
- Make reading visible beyond school. Continue and expand efforts that position reading as a community norm, not just a school subject.
Where students stand in reading at third grade predicts trajectories in high school, college, and employment. This is why reading is not just a goal for schools, and early literacy is not just a school subject. It is a shared responsibility of all of us, including schools, libraries, health systems, families, community organizations, and employers who will eventually hire these students, to ensure that every third grader in Boston is reading at grade level.
Notes:
10. Lesnick, J., Goerge, R., Smithgall, C., & Gwynne J. (2010). Reading on grade level in third grade: How is it related to high school performance and college enrollment? Chicago: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. https://www.chapinhall.org/wp-content/uploads/Reading_on_Grade_Level_111710.pdf
11. StriveTogether. (2025). Cradle-to-Career outcomes playbook: Early grade reading. StriveTogether. https://www.strivetogether.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/StriveTogether-Cradle-to-Career-Playbook_EGR_Final.pdf
12. Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. (2026, February 3). Multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. https://www.doe.mass.edu/sfss/mtss/
13. McCormick, M. P., MacDowell, C., Weiland, C., Hsueh, J., Maier, M., Pralica, M., Maves, S., Snow, C. & Sachs, J. (2024). “Instructional alignment is associated with PreK persistence: Evidence from the Boston Public Schools.” Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 67, 89-100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2023.11.008
14. National Center for Education Statistics. (2025). 2024 NAEP reading assessment: Summary of results for grades 4 and 8. U.S. Department of Education. https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/reading/2024/g4_8/