There’s a number that has stayed with me: 4th grade.
Research has long established that 4th grade is a critical turning point in a child’s education. Before that, children are learning to read. After that, they’re reading to learn. A child who hasn’t mastered reading by the end of 3rd grade faces a steeper climb through every subject, every grade, every year that follows.
What makes this so urgent is what the data now tells us about how our kids are doing.
A 2026 Education Scorecard report analyzed test scores from roughly 35 million students and delivered a sobering finding: the nation entered a “learning recession” around 2013, when gains in math and reading stalled and student achievement began declining. This wasn’t a pandemic story. In reading, test scores were going down for four to six years before the pandemic — just a steady decline regardless of COVID. As Harvard researcher Tom Kane put it, “The pandemic was the mudslide that followed seven years of erosion in student achievement.” 13newsnow + 2
The results are devastating. Fourth grade reading scores have fallen to pre-2003 levels. These aren’t just statistics. They are children. Children who live right here in Metro Detroit. 13newsnow
The good news is that research points toward solutions. After decades of debate, educators are coalescing around the “science of reading,” a body of research reshaping how kids are taught to read and write, with at least 40 states introducing legislation aimed at reversing the downward trend in reading scores. But legislation takes time. Teacher training takes time. Curriculum changes take time. Stanford University
Books in a child’s hands — that can happen now.
Reading is at the foundation of academic success, and children who struggle to read are at a disadvantage throughout their academic careers. A core piece of building reading skills is simply access. To books, to stories, to the daily habit of picking something up and reading it for the joy of it. Stanford
That’s exactly what we do at Making Spirits Bright.
We go directly into schools in underserved communities across Metro Detroit and put on Free Book Fairs, giving every child the chance to choose 5 books to take home. We distribute an average of 3,000 books in a single half day. In 2025, we reached 12,500 children across 6 regions and 83.8% reported increased reading enjoyment afterward. That last number matters most to me. A child who enjoys reading will read. A child who reads before 4th grade has a real shot.
We are doing the work. We need your help to keep doing it.
Every dollar you donate to Making Spirits Bright helps put books in the hands of children who don’t have them at home. Kids who live in “book deserts” where age-appropriate reading materials simply don’t exist in the household. While policymakers and researchers work on long-term systemic change, we are showing up in schools right now watching kids light up when they get to choose a book that’s actually theirs to keep.
Please donate at makingspiritsbright.org/donate. You can give money, donate gently used books, or share our mission with someone who can. Every contribution keeps us moving, one book at a time.
Because 4th grade doesn’t wait.
Kristin Donnelly is VP of Fundraising for Making Spirits Bright. Kristin helps ensure we can sustain, and grow, our work in inspiring a love of reading in students and families. She is always looking for new ways to spread our mission and create partnerships in the community.
Kristin’s mom loves to read and instilled that love of reading into Kristin from a young age. Reading is an incredible hobby because it offers so many different opportunities
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