Leading the Conversation:
Turning the Page for Reading Success

A compelling body of research identifies third grade reading as a critical benchmark that strongly predicts children’s chances of success in school and beyond. Yet 43% of Massachusetts third graders read below grade level. With the path to reading success beginning at birth and including high-quality early education, Strategies for Children in 2010 commissioned “Turning the Page: Refocusing Massachusetts for Reading Success” from Nonie Lesaux, Ph.D., a nationally known literacy expert at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

“Leading the Conversation” is a series of events designed to help leaders and practitioners serving children from birth to age 9 implement the research-based recommendations in “Turning the Page.” Each event features experts summarizing research and practitioners describing how they are integrating the report’s recommendations into their work. The series—and its companion Massachusetts Third Grade Reading Proficiency Learning Network—complements the statewide policy work that resulted in An Act Relative to Third Grade Reading Proficiency, which Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed into law in September 2012 and which is also informed by “Turning the Page.”