Across the United States, thousands of grade schools are proving that poverty doesn’t have to determine destiny — or a child’s change to excel at reading. Using state-level data, ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÊÓ analyzed how third-grade reading proficiency compares to local poverty rates and identified more than 2,000 schools outperforming expectations.

As poverty rates rise, reading proficiency rates tend to fall. But not everywhere. In these standout schools, students are reading well above what’s predicted based solely on their communities’ income levels.

We calculated each state’s expected reading proficiency rate, based on its local poverty rate, and compared that to its actual third grade reading scores. This methodology helped us identify schools that are beating the odds and successfully teaching kids to read.

View our to find the schools in your community beating the odds in reading.