SALT LAKE CITY — Educators say reading is the foundation for learning — and in Utah, they stress it's the key to future opportunities.
"In a lot of these situations, these children come from homes where parents work multiple jobs. Money is really tight. And some of them don't even have books in the home," said Aaron Hall, Director of Public Relations for Operation Literacy.
The nonprofit, whose mission is to help foster a love of reading, delivers free books and brings authors into classrooms at Title I schools — campuses that receive federal funding because a large percentage of students come from lower-income families.
The Education Recovery Scorecard shows Utah ranks 37th nationally in "reading recovery." That measure reflects how well students are catching up since the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experts say the impact of low literacy goes beyond English class. "If their literacy is low in their younger grades, as they get older, it starts to impact their science and their math because we have more reading when we get to the older grades," said Angi Castillo, a librarian at Guadalupe School in Rose Park.
"Reading is involved in everything we do," she added.
For Adi Castillo, books open up new worlds. “Why I love reading so much is that each fairytale is a little bit different," said Adi, a 3rd grader at Guadalupe School in Rose Park.
But advocates say that not every child in Utah has the same chance to discover new stories. Hall says that's why they've stepped in. "It's all to nurture this love of reading and writing so they can go on for better success academically and vocationally later in life," Hall said.
While organizations continue working to close those gaps, students like Adi remind us of what's at stake.
