Has California turned the page on its reading crisis?

For years California has faced a literacy crisis with less than half of third- and fourth-graders reading at grade level in the 2023-24 school year and the state often trailing national reading achievement.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic stalled learning, California students struggled to meet reading expectations. Recent state and national testing data shows they have been slow to regain ground lost during the pandemic. The gap between socioeconomically disadvantaged students and their more affluent peers is wider than ever, and the second largest in the nation.

Now, though, with Gov. Gavin Newsom pledging to include $200 million in funding for evidence-based literacy instruction in the state budget and California schools preparing for the first time this year to screen every