What was causing the gap in reading performance between poor and wealthier Baltimore students? Johns Hopkins University researchers wanted to know and in 2014 began investigating whether the gap might be due to poor students’ need for eyeglasses. As an eyecare professional, it is disturbing to note that studies over the last 10 years indicate that poorly performing students are frequently misdiagnosed with behavioral disorders or special education needs when the root of the problem is uncorrected vision, a comparatively easy fix. To begin, Hopkins researchers initially screened several hundred second- and third-grade students for vision deficiencies and gave two free pairs of eyeglasses to about 60 percent of them, as needed. Researchers then tracked the school performance of those students for one year. They found that reading performance improvement for the group that received glasses was significant when compared to students who did not need glasses. Read More