08/11/2026
When a child can’t read on grade level, they don’t just fall behind academically. They start to shut down, act out, avoid, and/or disengage. And too often, instead of asking “what skill is this child missing?” — we ask “what’s wrong with this child’s behavior?”
Educator Hilderbrand Pelzer III — who runs one of the largest correctional education programs in the U.S. — puts it plainly: too often we see kids struggle early, focus only on the behavior, and fast-track them to special ed or discipline instead of addressing the reading gap underneath it.
The research backs this up hard. Academic failure, reading failure, and the juvenile justice pipeline are documented as deeply connected — this is a pattern.
So what’s the fix? It starts in Tier 1: Strong core reading instruction, early identification, data-driven support, and teachers equipped with the Science of Reading- not just behavior charts.
This is why literacy work IS justice work. This is why what happens in a 1st grade reading group can change whether a kid ends up in a courtroom fifteen years later.
This is the “why” behind everything we do at Right To Read.
