Savannah-Chatham schools target 95% third grade reading proficiency by 2031

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - As of spring 2025, 53.3% of third graders in Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools were reading at grade level. The Chatham Educational Alliance hopes to raise that number to 95% by 2031 through the Moonshot Initiative.

Community leaders met in Chatham County to set a numeric goal and deadline for improving reading proficiency among students.

Reading beyond the classroom

Experts said learning does not stop at the last school bell and that reading should continue during after-school care and at home. That includes reading stories, math problems and other material needed for academic success.

The Chatham Educational Alliance says a child who cannot read at grade level by third grade is four times more likely to drop out of high school. The organization also says these children are more likely to experience poverty, with a significant chance of a lifetime of narrowed choices.

A civil rights issue

Kareem Weaver, executive director of Fulcrum, said reading proficiency exists on a spectrum.

“It’s not just literate and illiterate, and most people exist between there they can kind of read. They can kind of keep a job, but they’re in crisis. Children have the right to read. This is a civil rights issue. It’s one thing to sit on the lunch counter and it’s another thing to be able to read the menu,” Weaver said.

Elementary schools respond

Hodge Elementary is among the schools supporting the Moonshot Initiative and the resources it will provide.

Tasha Maxwell, family engagement facilitator at Hodge Elementary School, said the school is starting work immediately.

“At Hodge Elementary School we are definitely hitting the ground running. Everyone has their own individual mind so we have to meet the child where they’re at. If you have an IEP, if you have an RTI, it’s behavior, it’s home life, it’s values, it’s economics, it’s where your community and who your supporters are. It’s the whole child, the whole community, and that’s how you get to where we need to go,” Maxwell said.

An IEP is an Individual Education Plan, written by a team when a child qualifies for a special education program. An RTI is a Response to Intervention. It is used when a child is reading below grade level and involves pulling students into small groups and using a data program to close the learning gap.

Weaver said the goal is to get children reading.

“We want to get those kids reading. They gotta get to the moon,” Weaver said.

The message from organizers is that reaching that goal will require the whole community to help set children up to succeed, whether they are solving a word problem, following a science lesson or reading a book.