M iami-Dade is at the back of the pack, screamed a recent front page Miami Herald headline. A study commissioned by the Beacon Council, the county’s economic development agency, revealed that Miami-Dade badly trails competitors when it comes to the percentage of young professionals, an educated workforce and other important economic indicators. It turns out we have fewer college-educated workers than 15 metropolitan areas of comparable size, including Atlanta, Charlotte and Houston.

This should come as no surprise when you consider that one-third of Miami-Dade’s third graders fail to read at grade level, which is the leading indicator of school performance and high school graduation. And in communities with the highest rates of poverty, such as Miami and Opa-locka, that startling statistic climbs to 45 percent and 56 percent, respectively. National research finds that poverty is a leading indicator of limited early reading skills, which contributes to deficient school readiness, poor attendance and learning loss in the summer — all factors that help create achievement gaps between low and middle income kids.

The ability to read well is an essential skill for living and thriving in an information-based society. Unless we reverse the trend, the disastrous costs in human and financial terms will yield more dropouts, unprepared workers, delinquency and crime.

This is precisely why The Children’s Trust has launched Read to Learn, a third grade reading initiative. By third grade, kids must make the shift from learning to read to reading to learn. Therefore, our campaign set a goal of reducing by half the number of third graders not reading at grade level by 2020.

Ambitious? Absolutely. Yet anything less will cripple the future for all who live and work in Miami-Dade County. Our efforts in Miami-Dade County coincide with those across the state and nation. Grade-level reading improvement has become a priority, for educators, policymakers, civic leaders, parents and advocates. Schools and school districts are being judged by their success in raising this bar. Our Read to Learn campaign is rooted in this growing sense of urgency across America.

The Trust is leading our countywide effort, but collective impact holds the key. Working with us are Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Miami-Dade County and its public library system, the Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe, the Miami-Dade Family Learning Partnership, United Way of Miami-Dade, the Children’s Movement of Florida — and many others. Support from the business community will be vital.

The Children’s Trust is ideally suited to bring community partners together by aligning many initiatives that have promoted literacy for years. Since our inception in 2002 and our first funding cycle in 2004, we have funded programs that promote literacy. Today, each of our after-school and summer programs continue to offer a literacy component, as do our parenting and home visitation programs. With Read to Learn, we aim to close the gap that separates many low-income students from their peers, enabling all children to make the pivotal switch by third grade from learning to read to reading to learn — a transition that will open their eyes and broaden their future opportunities.

In the coming months, we will be enlisting the support of the entire community. No one organization can meet this challenge. Together we can. We look forward to your support and partnership as we act on the principle that “all children are our children.”

Modesto E. Abety-Gutierrez is president and CEO of The Children’s Trust.