The article argues that most middle-class students have different life experiences that prepares them to read, where studetns in poverty do not have these experiences. Students coming into kindergarten who don’t know their letters or sounds come in at a big disadvantage.
One big problem that has plagued schools is that teachers graduate students even though they fail reading. In Miami schools, they will try to solve this issue by implementing a tougher promotion rule that requires third-graders to repeat the year if they score at the bottom level on the FCAT. They still would allow exceptions to this rule, which they would use in exceptional circumstances.
