Fewer than half of Arizona’s third graders are reading at grade level — a sobering trend that education leaders hope to ...

For the past three springs — in 2022, 2023 and 2024 — 23% of DPS K-3 students were reading significantly below grade level, up from 16% in the spring of 2019, according to district data.

Overall, student scores declined slightly in reading — less than one percentage point — with 46.7% achieving state learning standards for their grade, compared with 47.1% the year before.

The biggest improvement was among kindergarteners, with nearly 79% reading at grade level or higher this year, as compared to 66% last spring — marking the first time kindergarten scores have exceed ...