In Chicago, one of America’s prized and wealthiest cities, only 23 percent of its fourth graders scored proficient or higher in reading on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is also known as the Nation’s Report Card. Another 53% scored below basic.
That means that three out of four fourth graders could not demonstrate solid command of reading skills, and more than half lacked even partial mastery. What is even worse is that the increase in reading proficiency from fourth grade to eighth grade was only four percentage points—from 23 percent to 27 percent. Despite having these damning statistics before them, the educators and parents raised no alarms—those who improved were the exception to the rule.
I have discussed youth literacy in previous Rooftop Revelations, and it remains the most pressing issue for the youth I serve. There are real humans behind these test scores. And you will notice that I did not bring race into this issue yet. Those numbers are for all of Chicago’s students. We are all affected by this decline in education standards.
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A child who cannot read proficiently by the end of third grade is four times more likely to fail to graduate from high school on time than a proficient reader. The number is even worse for children who live in poverty. What kind of quality of life can these children expect as adults? We know from common sense that adults with limited literacy face higher unemployment and lower earnings over their lifetimes. They are literally shut out of any job that requires literacy as a skill.
I see the damage from this illiteracy epidemic on the South Side of Chicago every day. I see young people who cannot fill out a simple job application. They come by my church for help. I see it in parents who cannot read medical reports that determine what help their children receive. I have even had to help people who graduated from high school without being able to read and cannot read a lease or understand a text message from a supervisor.
No American should need help with these simple tasks in 2026, and it is no wonder why so many stay trapped in the same cycle of poverty or end up in prison. Reading is the one skill that opens the door to the wider world. Reading can lift anyone from poverty, for it is a skill that enriches the reader with knowledge, spirit and know-how. Without this skill, how can one pursue economic opportunity, personal freedom and one’s dreams?
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This high level of illiteracy is a disease within our city, and yet we treat it like background noise. We give so many other issues, like homelessness and immigration, a higher priority than reading. I’m not discounting those issues at all. I am simply making the point that this illiteracy crisis should rank up there, but it doesn’t. And that is why we continue to fail over and over on the one skill that gives children the real key to a better future: the ability to read.
I have kids of my own, and I am a very busy man with a congregation that depends on me at all hours of the day, but I know that teaching a child to read is not complicated.
The science of reading has been settled for decades. It starts with phonics. Each letter is sounded out, and we teach the kids how to blend those sounds into words. We do this at home every night before bedtime, when we read to our children and then challenge them to sound out the words back to us.
We do this every day, and schools that use these structured literacy programs see results. But somewhere along the way, our schools decided that the fundamentals were too simple, that children needed something more sophisticated than learning to sound out words. They were wrong. The children paid for it.
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We must put the blame where it belongs, and most of it belongs at the feet of the parents. Do not have a child if you do not have the time to read to him or her every night before bed. There are no excuses for that.
I blame the schools that pass along kids to the upper grades when they cannot read at grade level. Anybody who says that these kids are our future and does not stress reading is part of the problem. We must become merciless in our pursuit of literacy, and there should be no excuses.
That is why I am working to open my own school alongside the Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center. I believe this school will set a new standard in this community, one where academic excellence is not the exception but the expectation. We will teach parents how to read to their children every night. When they see what it does for their kids, they will tell other parents. That is how a movement starts. When children arrive at kindergarten already knowing their sounds and their letters, their teachers will see what is possible and want more of it.
I believe this can change the spirit of our community from the ground up. I can envision it. I am building it.
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