In a bid to help more students read proficiently in 3rd grade--a skill considered critical to their future educational success--new laws and initiatives springing up around the country require educators to step up their efforts to identify and help struggling readers even before they enter kindergarten. It's not unusual for states or school districts to consider 3rd grade reading proficiency a key goal; research suggests it's a pivotal skill. Policies against social promotion have hinged on it, and the earliest testing requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act attach to 3rd grade. But the recent buzz of activity around early reading is notable for the way it looks backward from 3rd grade, articulating plans and requirements designed to ensure that pupils and teachers in preschool through 2nd grade are doing what's necessary to reach the desired reading results in 3rd grade. In drafting laws and designing initiatives, politicians and educators are relying on a growing mound of research that points to 3rd grade reading proficiency as a crucial milestone. One of the latest studies found that children who are not reading on grade level by 3rd grade are four times less likely to graduate from high school by age 19 than peers who are. If those struggling readers are poor, they are 13 times likelier to be high school dropouts than their wealthier, reading-proficient peers.