COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine signed his seventh executive order this year on Thursday, creating the Governor’s Literacy Challenge in an effort to improve reading proficiency in Ohio children. 

The executive order gives multiple directions to the Governor’s Children’s Initiative, an office created by DeWine that works to revise and improve systems that serve children and their families.

The Initiative will create a program that would recognize schools that are excelling at teaching reading and where students are making significant progress in their reading skills. 

The Governor’s Children’s Initiative will collaborate with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library of Ohio to develop recommendations for continuing partnerships that encourage reading. It will also develop strategies to increase parental and family involvement in fostering children’s reading skills and work with state agencies to develop strategies with the goal of improved reading. 

In his executive order, DeWine states several reasons why this effort is important. 

He said that reading is fundamental as it is the basis for all learning and the ability to read enhances all aspects of life. More than half of all entering kindergarteners are not meeting the benchmarks in language and literacy, at least 40% of all 3rd grade students are not proficient in reading, with that number increasing as students get older with only 33% of Ohio 8th grade students reading at or above their grade level. 

He states that Ohio’s ultimate goal is for every student to be a proficient reader. There are several efforts in Ohio to improve reading proficiency including several grants and multiple tutoring programs.