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GREENSBORO — Marquel Townsend, a third-grader at Brightwood Elementary, is learning how to read.

He doesn’t struggle. At least not anymore. He rolls through words like “thought’’ and reads up to 87 words a minute, plowing through short stories about being big, getting muddy and watching Dad get mad.

So, he’s making it. He’s even got a trophy for his reading achievement — a circle with wings. It sits on his dresser.

“I’ll see it forever,’’ Marquel says, “and that’s kinda nice.’’

Marquel — like thousands of other Guilford County students — is getting ready to take end-of-grade tests. If you stop any teacher, any student this month, they’ll tell you horror stories about the EOGs.

Some kids freak over the stress. Think about the kid who struggles to read. Carole Jackson has seen them. She’s Marquel’s tutor. And after spending five years as a part-time tutor, she’s seen her share of struggling students.

“When I see fifth-graders who can’t read third-grade stuff, I wonder 'How did that happen?’ ’’ says Jackson, a 63-year-old great-grandmother. “Somebody failed that child somewhere along the line, and that shouldn’t be.’’

If you pore through a 2006 reading comprehensive survey of fourth-graders worldwide, you’ll see we’re a few points above average. Out of 45 countries, the United States ranks No. 18, right behind Latvia.

Reading is the world’s ticket to success. Yet, if a kid falls behind, they become a statistic. More often than not, they drop out, get lower-paying jobs and end up on public assistance, in prison or even worse — dead.

That dark side hit me when I watched Marquel two weeks ago at a ceremony at Greensboro’s Special Events Center.

He was recognized as Guilford County’s “Great Leaper,’’ the student who made the most progress in the Great Leaps Reading Program.

It’s run through a nonprofit, Communities In Schools of Greater Greensboro, pairs volunteers with struggling elementary school students and has helped tutor more than 1,000 students since 1999.

Those students come from Guilford County’s poorest schools, all at-risk kids who educators worry could fall through our county’s porous cracks and disappear.

And here they were, at the Special Events Center: eight elementary school students, fidgeting in front of a bank of doors, wearing sashes as “King of Leaps’’ and “Queen of Leaps’’ and hearing radio personality Busta Brown say constantly from the podium, “Wow!’’

Marquel wore his “Great Leaper’’ sash. He couldn’t keep still either. He had a trophy, a $20 bill, a plastic dolphin and a book bag full of reading materials.

“Are these all my toys?’’ he asked his principal Melinda Mayhew.

Great Leaps has a 60 percent success rate. Basically, that means more than one of every two students enrolled pass their EOGs and see their reading scores go up between 7 to 10 points.

But Great Leaps needs more volunteers. It has only four for 62 students. We all know the drill: not enough time and not enough space in the school or in the day.

But think about what’s at stake. Then, talk to a few former students.

Like Paris Alston, the Southeast Guilford senior. She got a full ride to play basketball at S.C. State. She wants to become a teacher.

Or her 18-year-old brother Tyrone. He’s studying at GTCC to become a mortician. He earned As and Bs at Southeast, wrestled for the school in the 171-pound class — and nearly won a state championship — and started the school’s American Sign Language club.

All after going through Great Leaps as a fourth-grader, where he watched his grades improve and saw his shyness over reading aloud melt away.

There’s no telling what Marquel will be. He loves video games and he loves Spider-Man. And with a reading trophy on his shelf, he loves the idea of thinking about his world beyond Brightwood.

“I’m starting to learn better,’’ he says, “so I won’t be dumb. I’ll be smarter.’’

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com.