Over the past decade, Americans have become increasingly concerned about the high numbers--and costs--of high school dropouts. The time is now to build a similar consensus around this less-recognized but equally urgent fact: The pool from which employers, colleges, and the military draw is too small, and still shrinking, because millions of American children get to fourth grade without learning to read proficiently. And that puts them on the dropout track. This special report highlights the causes and consequences of low reading proficiency and proposes some essential steps toward closing the gap between those who can and cannot read proficiently, raising the bar for what people expect all American children to know and be able to do, and improving the overall achievement of children from low-income families. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure, and 115 endnotes.)