Page 2    |    ©The Children’s Reading Foundation with permission from Lynn Fielding

 ©The Children’s Reading Foundation with permission from Lynn Fielding    |    Page 3

The First Five Years Impact   Success in School and Life

220

240

200

years

year

Grade

Level

year

years

years

180

160

140

NWEA RIT Scale

Birth through Age 5

Kindergarten through 10th Grade

High School

Dropout Rate

University

Enrollment

+

2

+

1

-

1

-

2

-

3

GL

6

%

7

%

10

%

26

%

45

%

55

%

81

%

44

%

25

%

12

%

<3

%

<2

%

01

23

41

23

45

67

8910

K

Every year 40 percent of children walk into kindergarten one-to-three years behind. 

These students struggle to catch up. Sadly, most of them never do.  

There is something YOU can do to help children succeed.  

A child’s learning from birth to age 5 is critical; it determines their 
kindergarten starting point. Students who enter kindergarten behind 
have a monumental undertaking to catch up with their classmates. 

This chart represents the reading scores of 2.3 million students 
nationwide, based on real data from the Northwest Evaluation 
Association – so this isn’t a projection.  

As students progress through school, they typically only make one 
year of academic growth for each year in school. For those behind, 
it’s extremely hard to catch up because they need to achieve their 
normal year of growth PLUS another year of growth or more.

So for students who enter kindergarten one-to-three years behind 
(the yellow, orange and red bands) it is very difficult to make 
sufficient progress to move up even ONE level without a massive 
amount of intervention. 

All children can and will improve, but for those who enter 
kindergarten behind, around 75 percent will never catch up to their 
classmates. 

THIS MEANS EACH CHILD’S KINDERGARTEN 

STARTING POINT MATTERS!

The data is grouped into colored bands: 

Students who enter kindergarten one-to-two years ahead 
are shown by the blue and teal bands

Students entering at grade level are shown in green; and 

Students entering kindergarten one-to-three years behind 
are represented by the yellow, orange and red bands.