Illiteracy is a key factor in escalating high school dropout rates. In South Carolina, almost 45 students drop out of school every day, which increases their likelihood of going to jail by almost 8 times. The more encouraging statistic is that there is almost a 100% rate of high school graduation if a student can be developed to be literate and proficient by 8^th grade. That’s the goal of nonprofit group promoting early literacy, Ready 4 Reading.

Ready 4 Reading hosted a two-day event in March in South Carolina highlighting the improving reading skills in South Carolina. The even was sponsored by Scientific Learning, makes of the Fast ForWord® and Reading Assistant™ family of products designed to promote brain fitness for reading and learning success.

With school districts nationwide feeling the pressure to turn out graduates with critical thinking skills capable of benefiting US companies at younger and younger ages and improve upon educational practices and curriculums that are slipping behind the world’s standards, the Ready By 8 project series being implemented by Ready 4 Reading and Scientific Learning couldn’t come at a more fortuitous time.

Scientific Learning firmly believes that particular core and cognitive skills needs to be in place before foundational learning skills can be established. The brain must be prepped and Scientific Learning, through 30 years of research, has developed the technology to provide us with the tools to make this happen with students grades K-12. With over 3 million students that have used the Fast ForWord family of products to find success in the classroom, Scientific Learning is making a strong case to the benefit of their comprehensive brain fitness programs.