Parents play important role in child's reading

SALT LAKE CITY — It's a typical night at the Ramirez home. It's just after seven and all three children are sitting in the living room, books in hand. An overhead light is on and so is a lamp on the side table, emitting a soft warm glow.

Lino, 8, is snuggled up to his mom on their loveseat, with "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" in his lap. Dragging his finger along the words on the page, he reads out loud to his mom.

Lenora Ramirez helps him sound out words like "exactly," "disaster," and "hypothermia." She tells him to pause after periods and asks him questions as they go along.

Her other two children eagerly wait their turn to read with mom. Sarahi, 6, chimes in occasionally "Can I go now?" And 5-year-old Santiago tells his mom he wants to read next, as he flips through blue pieces of paper, held together with a silver ring, with "sight-words" on them. He silently mutters "the," "my," and "there" under his breath as the words show up on his cards.

Lenora Ramirez works until 6 p.m. almost every night, but she makes time to read with her children, her oldest of which is in third grade. She knows reading with them is vital. Not only do studies show that children who are not reading at grade level by the end of the third grade are likely never to catch up (as that is the time that children switch from learning to read to reading to learn), but according to educators, reading with children at home is an important aspect of helping them excel at reading.

A recent poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates of 600 Utah voters shows Utahans understand the importance of reading at grade-level, with 87 percent of those polled agreeing that "resources should be applied to ensure every student is reading at grade level by the end of third grade."

But according to a reading test conducted by the National Association of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2009, Utah and the nation may have a ways to go. Sixty-nine percent of Utah fourth-graders scored below proficient in reading, the test reported. The national average is slightly better, with 68 percent of students scoring below proficient.

This may surprise some who look at state test scores, most of which show a much higher proficiency level than the NAEP score. For instance, Utah's third-grade language arts state test showed an 80 percent proficiency in 2009. But Jessy Donaldson, with The Annie E. Casey Foundation, which recently did a an in-depth study on reading levels by the fourth grade, said the NAEP test is considered to be more in line with international standards and, therefore, more rigorous.