In 2015, New America’s Early & Elementary Education Policy team developed a birth-through-third grade state policy framework. It includes state policies in seven areas that are essential for supporting children’s literacy development:
- Educators: Teachers and Leaders;
- Standards, Assessment, and Data;
- Equitable Funding;
- Pre-K: Access and Quality;
- Full-Day Kindergarten: Access and Quality;
- Dual Language Learner Supports; and
- Third Grade Reading Laws.
Using this framework, New America ranked 50 states and Washington, D.C. into the categories of Crawling, Toddling, or Walking based on their progress toward achieving 65 policy indicators across these seven individual policy areas and across all of them together. Use the interactive maps, which can be accessed here, to figure out where your state should focus its efforts.