The Bad News
US Reading, Math, and Science scores all collapse after 4th grade. 38% of 4th graders cannot read at even basic proficiency (72% of minority students), a situation the NIH calls a 'public health crisis.'
As the reading scores decline, grade by grade, science and math scores collapse with them; so that by 12th grade our students are 18th in world in math and 17th in science.
The K-1 Vocabulary Gap: many children start school with a hidden handicap (an oral, or pre-reading, vocabulary gap of up to 4,000 words). These children may do well in reading up to second grade and suddenly experience problems. Why? At second grade the vocabulary level of school textbooks jumps and, for children with vocabulary deficits, reading comprehension becomes impossible.

The Good News
Researchers have identified the path children must follow to become strong readers:
1. Phonemic Awareness-> 2. Phonics-> 3. Vocabulary Building-> 4. Guided Reading Practice;
and agreed that vocabulary is the missing link in most school reading programs.
Encouraging research has confirmed the unexpected facts that (a) vocabulary = reading comprehension: to raise reading you must first boost vocabulary; (b) children learn new words in roughly the same order (there is a universal word-difficulty list, valid for children in Texas, New York, or Hawaii) and (c) that placing children at their vocabulary learning threshold in that list speeds up acquisition and retention of new words, boosts perceptive vocabulary, and so, reading ability.

What Can Parents Do?
Now parents can help their children stay on or above grade level in vocabulary and reading--from Grade 3-College-- by bringing the award-winning, classroom tested TargetScore! Learning System into their home. Unfortunately, few schools incorporate this new research--or any effective vocabulary acceleration tools--into their reading curriculum.
But the findings in the "Good News" section are at the heart of all TargetScore!™ Vocabulary products.

Get your very own TargetScore!™ Vocabulary system today.