Why Johnny Can't Read

From the Petersburg (VA) Progress-Index, dated June 5 2003:

"The School Board's Curriculum Committee has come up with a recommendation that would alter the current promotion policy so that all kindergartners would be automatically promoted to the first grade and students in grades one through five would need only pass four of the five academic core subjects - language arts, mathematics, social studies and science - to be promoted to the next grade level. The fifth core subject - reading - would be removed from the requirement list for grade promotion..."