Reading is a fundamental part of early education, but recent reports found students in New York are falling behind.

Only about 46% of all third graders scored "proficient" in English Language Arts, according to The Education Trust. Not hitting that mark by third grade makes it way harder that they’ll ever be proficient at all.

It's a struggle Adrienne Groman understands.

Looking back on her elementary school memories brings back a lot.

“I just always felt left out and [...] that I was behind,” she said.

By the end of first grade, Groman was diagnosed as dyslexic.

“I could read enough, but it was slow,” she explained.

She felt like was never given the chance to succeed.

“They said, 'disability' in quotes as if I didn't have a real disability," she said, looking at an old school letter written to her parents. "They suggested that I didn't study for the test and then I could have tried harder.”

Years later, her daughter Olive was having the same problem.

“She just would scream every time we brought out a book. It didn't make sense to her,” she recalled.

A lot of her daughter’s schooling was balanced literacy, which is basically having kids guess words based on books they’re interested in.

“She would say dog instead of puppy, just using similar words because she was looking at the pictures and she was saying what the pattern would say," said Groman. "She was clearly not looking at the words.”

“Right now, New York state is suffering a literacy crisis," said Tarja Parssinen, founder of the Western New York Education Alliance. “New York is stagnating and falling, in fact, because we're not making change. In fact, we're one of five states not making any change at the state level whatsoever.”

Over the last 20 years, New York dropped from 15th in reading scores to 37th. Areas of high child poverty had some of the lowest 3rd grade reading scores including 11% in Rochester, 13% in Syracuse, and 24% in Buffalo, according to The Education Trust.

“Basically 60% of all kids need direct explicit instruction,” said Parssinen.

That means phonics (learning how to sound out a word), as well as phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

“Implementation...it's very difficult," said Parssinen. "[It] takes a lot of time and costs a lot of money, but we know what to do.”

Some New York districts are making changes. Parssinen wants to see more.

“We can't really talk about equity until we talk about literacy, and making sure that every student knows how to read," she said. "It really is a civil rights issue."

As for Groman, she’ll keep advocating for her daughter and teaching Olive to do the same.

“I don't think reading is ever going to be really easy for her," said Groman. "But I think that she would be able to learn a little bit more in her job and class. And that's all I really want.

The New York State Department of Education said since New York is a local control state, decisions are left to school board and district leaders and there’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach:

"Together, early identification and early intervention can help educators to identify the specific supports that will meet the unique needs of each student. This may include targeted assistance. That is, research-based, specific reading instruction within a multi-tiered system of supports-integrated framework. These interventions need to be evidence-based and include the core principles of structured literacy and the Science of Reading. The importance of holistic, comprehensive literary instruction – in reading especially, but also in writing, speaking, and listening – cannot be overemphasized."

Parssinen says other local-control states, like California, are more advanced.

She would like more recommendations and requirements put into place about evidence-based instruction for students, teachers and schools to use. She also thinks recommending/requiring teacher prep programs or other professional development regarding reading science could help.

If you think your child might be struggling, you can find some signs of a bigger issue here and some tips here.