The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction is challenging the state’s 1.5 million public school students to read 10 million books next year.
State Superintendent Mo Green said the challenge is meant to build on the state’s improvement in reading scores and foster students’ love of reading. It’s not a mandated initiative with new assessments.
“So why a reading challenge and why now?” Green said. “Because learning to read and loving to read are not the same. What we are hearing is that across our country, the love of reading is fading.”
The percentage of North Carolina third-graders who read at grade level, a key literacy benchmark, rose by eight percentage points last year to 55%. But Green pointed out that means 45% of third graders are still behind.
Green said all books count — including audio books, picture books, books read in school or at home, and books read aloud. The challenge officially begins Jan. 1, when officials will launch an online challenge hub where students can log their books.
Schools will follow their own students’ progress to foster “local pride combined with a statewide goal,” Green said.
Green said he previously oversaw a 1 million book challenge as superintendent at Guilford County Schools, where students overshot the goal and read 1.9 million.
“I think this is actually not only realistic but doable," he said, "and I think our students will go far beyond 10 million books in the course of the year.”
