Cribsheet: Education
Cost of private School in NYC (Little Red School House) kindergarten through fifth grade: $161,590
Cost of private School in Ohio (The Cincinnati Country Day School) kindergarten through fifth grade: $89,730
Stylish backpack: $24
Lunchbox: $12.95
Pencil case (including four pencils): $5.95
Six years’ worth of NYC public school lunches at $1.50 a pop: $1170
Proportion of children with some letter recognition skills in the spring semester of their kindergarten year: 95%
Proportion of children who could understand words read in context at the start of first grade: 48%
According to the National Assessment of Educational Programs 2000 assessment of fourth-graders’ reading ability:
The proportion of fourth-graders with reading skills below the basic level was: 37%
The proportion of fourth-graders with reading skills at the advanced level was: 8%
Proportion of students who read every day for fun: 43%
Proportion of students who hardly ever read for fun: 14%
Proportion of students who have two or fewer types of reading materials at home: 32%
Proportion of students with four or more types of reading materials at home: 34%
Literacy rank of the US among 17 high-income countries: 10
Research by Sarah Sundberg. Cribsheet appears in Strollerderby every Wednesday.
