By Joe Mueller | The Center Square
Colorado’s fourth-grade students are struggling to read and its eighth graders are having trouble with math, according to this year’s KIDS COUNT Data Book published by The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The report stated 62% of fourth graders weren’t proficient in reading in 2022. In 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, 60% of fourth graders weren’t proficient. Nationally, 68% of all fourth graders aren’t proficient in reading, compared to 66% in 2019.
Eighth graders not proficient in math increased to 72% in 2022, an increase in nine percentage points since 2019. The national percentage for the category is 74%, an increase of seven percentage points since 2019.