More than half of the third-grade students read at a sixth-grade level.
Ronald Henry, a teacher at Douglass, believes his third-grade students have a healthy fear of guns.
Last year, Grafflin had 98 percent of third-grade students at or above what the state considers typical for that grade level.
Last year, 72.6 percent of third-grade students read at or above the state minimum, up 13 percentage points from two years earlier.
On Saturdays third-grade Japanese students silently stand and bow to their teacher.
For example, 85 percent of third-grade students statewide met the standards, but that number fell to 58 percent in the eighth grade.
He said he has talked to the principal of a nearby grammar school about expanding the program to include third-grade students.
The same is not true of my third-grade students in Washington Heights.
Last year, 89 percent of the third-grade students in Long Beach scored above the state reference point.
There, 93 percent of the third-grade students were reading at grade level in 1997 compared with 52 percent in 1996.