WHY WE EXIST

Achievement Gap

Less than one-quarter of students in HCS Title I elementary schools are meeting or exceeding academic content standards in reading compared with a little more than half of elementary students in non-Title I schools.

A recent national study commissioned by the Annie E. Casey Foundation of 3rd grade children found that one of six children (17 percent) who are not reading proficiently in third grade do not graduate from high school on time, a rate four times greater than that for proficient readers.  For children who were poor for at least a year and were not reading proficiently in third grade, the proportion of those who don’t finish school rose to 26 percent. The rate was highest for poor black and Hispanic students, at 31 and 33 percent respectively.

Fourth Grade students in HCS Title I schools are performing significantly below their peers in HCS non-Title I schools.  More than three quarters (76 percent) of HCS Title I school fourth graders don’t meet academic content standards in reading compared to a little over one third (37 percent) of fourth graders in HCS non-Title I schools who don’t meet standards.

Fifth grade students overall in HCS Title I schools are performing worse than any grade level students in Title I and non-Title I schools in reading. Eighty two percent (82%) of fifth graders in HCS Title I schools are not meeting academic content standards in reading.

Conditions