65%
of all fourth-graders read below proficiency = 35M students
more than
77%
of Black and Hispanic fourth-grader students read below proficiency
only
11%
of educators feel "completely prepared" to teach reading
3X
Children with a reading-based learning difference are twice as likely to be suspended and
three times as likely to drop out of high school than theis peers
Ameer Baraka, Keynote
Speaker at Learning Ally’s
Spotlight on Dyslexia 2022
An accomplished Emmy nominated actor and
devoted dyslexia advocate committed to stopping the school-to-prison pipeline, Baraka was only a few
words shy of a life sentence in prison, all because he couldn’t read.
“I was twenty-three years old and I was reading on a third-grade level. I made up my mind that for these four years I’ve got [in
prison], I’m going to learn to read. We went over some phonics and words. I was just completely
oblivious. And that’s the first time I heard of dyslexia.”
1. NAEP 2019 Mathematics and Reading Assessments
2. 2011 Data Book by Annie E. Casey Foundation
3. 2017 Nations Center for Learning Disabilities Annual Report