April 2012

The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is a determined effort to mobilize philanthropic leadership around moving the needle on third grade reading over the next decade.

The cities, counties, and towns that submitted action plans last month for improving grade-level reading are now taking the first crack at deciding who should receive the All-America City designation. More than 1,000 peer reviewers, drawn from the 100+ cities competing for the award, are scoring the plans. Communities with the highest scores will become finalists, with a panel deciding who receives the awards. The announcement will come July 2, after our Community Network Conference in Denver. The peer review process is also giving communities an opportunity to see the ideas proposed and the work already underway in other places.

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We’re excited to see increased investment in the preK-to-third grade frame as more foundations recognize the importance of the third grade reading milestone. Some grants represent a continuation of good work, while others are tied directly to the Campaign’s effort to spread the word about early literacy. Here’s a sampling of grants large and small supporting early reading:

• The McKnight Foundation has committed nearly $6 million to two Twin Cities school districts to increase third grade reading proficiency. Prior to receiving the grants, the two Minnesota districts worked with the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Institute for a year to examine the full scope of research on preK-third grade education, and how best to use the grant dollars to boost literacy.
• The Grossman Family Foundation awarded $200,000 to one of our Bright Spot programs, Reach Out and Read. The funds will support the expansion of the organization’s early literacy efforts in Fairfield County, Conn. Three cities in this county – Bridgeport, Danbury, and Norwalk – have submitted their Community Solutions Action Plans for the All-America City Grade-Level Reading Awards.
• Also in Connecticut, the New Alliance Foundation has developed a grant program called READy for the Grade. The initiative will award between $90,000 and $150,000 to public libraries for programs addressing grade-level reading and summer learning loss. READy for the Grade has requested proposals from public libraries in 42 towns, and the programs developed will be funded from summer 2013 to the summer 2015.
• The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust has funded the creation of a literacy director position for the state of Arizona. The director will be a dedicated expert supporting Arizona’s literacy directives and ensuring that all children are learning to read. The Trust, along with the Helios Education Foundation and the Arizona Community Foundation, is involved with a state-wide early literacy campaign.

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Stay on top of all that is new with the Campaign and with grade-level reading by making a regular visit to the website: www.gradelevelreading.net. The site offers a comprehensive news source on issues related to early childhood, reading development, and achievement. Additionally, get the latest updates on federal initiatives, state campaigns, and local efforts, or read recent studies on child development and literacy.

While enrollment in state-funded preschool programs has more than doubled in the last decade, per-child spending has fallen in many states, compromising programs that are meant to give low-income children a boost in school readiness, according to a new report.

The 2011 Preschool Yearbook, released this month by the National Institute for Early Education Research, shows a worrying trend: In 2010-11, 26 of the 39 states with public prekindergarten programs cut funding, for an overall decline of $60 million from the previous year. This was the second straight year that nationwide funding fell, and more cuts are slated through 2013 as dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dry up. More than half a million children – 43 percent of nationwide enrollment – are currently in programs that met fewer than half of NIEER’s quality standards benchmarks.

“We cannot continue down the path of cutting investments in early learning and jeopardizing the quality of programs for young children,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. This month Sec. Duncan introduced a new pool of money for Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grants. Five runners up from last year’s competition – Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wisconsin – will be invited to apply for the $133 million fund.

The current focus on improving grade-level reading raises an important question: What to do with students who aren’t reading proficiently by the end of third grade? A new report by the Education Commission on the States looks at how states are addressing this question, and especially how they are tackling the tricky issue of retention.

The report takes a close look at the early identification, intervention, and retention policies employed by Florida and New York City. Both the Sunshine State and the Big Apple require students to be held back in third grade if they score at the lowest level on state tests. But both policies also have strong identification and intervention components.

“Mandates from third grade retention policies in both Florida and NYC appear to have motivated school leaders and teachers to intervene earlier and more intensively, but states might be able to achieve a similar sense of urgency without implementing promotion gates,” concluded the Commission, advocating the importance of early identification and intervention programs to boost third grade reading proficiency.