The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
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.
You all have seen the headlines – nearly 300 of them in the likes of The New York Times, The Washington Post, Education Week, Huffington Post and so on – about the importance of grade-level reading and the Campaign goals. The numbers behind the headlines point to a compelling and rapidly evolving story about how the Campaign and its many partners are getting the word out and turning advocacy into action around moving the needle on third grade reading achievement.
What do those numbers say? The bottom line is that more committed individuals and organizations are working more effectively and aggressively to ensure that children arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed, that they attend school regularly, and that they have access to engaging summer programs.
Here’s a sense of how the Campaign gained traction in 2011.
Expanding our reach:
- 12,000 people attended more than 90 Campaign presentations
- 1,200 Chamber of Commerce executives were briefed on the Campaign
- 800 PBS executives participated in a discussion of the Campaign
- 50,000 page visits to the Campaign website
Engaging partners:
- 100+ foundations are participating in the Campaign
- 100+ organizations are partnering across the country
- 10 million people are reached by these partners
Moving communities to action:
- 163 communities in 36 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are developing substantive plans for improving early literacy
- 3 million+ K-3 schoolchildren are in these communities
- 32 mayors are leading campaigns
- 35 United Way chapters are leading campaigns
- 14 school superintendents are leading campaigns
- 40 local literacy councils are involved in campaigns
- 800+ community partners are involved in local campaigns
- 2.47 million fourth graders nationally scored below proficient on the 2009 NAEP reading test
- 1.2 million fourth graders nationally scored proficient
Our 10-year goal is to reverse those two numbers so that at least 2.4 million, or two thirds of students, are proficient readers by fourth grade.
Send us your numbers to add to the success story!
The Institute of Museum and Library Services announced this month that it will provide up to $2 million in grants over the next two years to advance the mission of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading.
The grants will support collaboration between libraries, museums, and community organizations working to promote learning for children from birth to age 8. Libraries and museums will be encouraged to tackle at least one of the challenges identified by the Campaign: the school readiness gap, summer learning loss, and chronic absence.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums.
Stay on top of all that is new with the Campaign and with the progress of 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. Get the latest updates on federal initiatives, state campaigns and local efforts, or read recent studies on child development and literacy.
Last Friday the White House announced the nine winners of the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge Grant program. The states–California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Washington–will split $500 million in federal grant money to foster early learning reform.
Between them these states include nearly 50 cities who have already stated their intent to develop comprehensive plans to boost third grade reading proficiency by joining the All-America City Grade-Level Reading network. The infusion of federal dollars for early learning will support their efforts to create stronger partnerships within communities to develop strategies in three key areas that too often hold students back from learning to read well by third grade: school readiness, chronic absence, and summer learning loss.
At its recent national summit in Washington, D.C., the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign called on more than 300 public education advocates from across the nation to support efforts to ensure that every child is reading on grade level by the end of third grade. In its 10-point “Declaration of Opportunity” the National OTL Campaign’s first commitment is to “ensure by 2020 that every child has access to high-quality early-childhood education and increase by 100 percent the number of students reading on grade level by the end of third grade.”
The National Opportunity to Learn Campaign will continue to gather signatures for the declaration and share them with policymakers to help build public support for policies that move us closer to the goal of every child reading at grade level by third grade. You can sign the declaration here.
A high-quality public education is the lifeline to opportunity in America and the foundation for a strong democracy. The National OTL Campaign supports each child’s opportunity to equal access to a high-quality public education regardless of where he or she lives.
New national assessment results for urban districts show no progress in 4th grade reading achievement. According to The Nation’s Report Card, Trial Urban District Assessment: Reading 2011, released earlier this month, none of the 21 participating districts improved their average scores on the 4th grade reading proficiency test between 2009 and 2011.
Overall, 45 percent of 4th graders in large cities performed below the basic level on the test, while 32 percent reached the basic mark and just 18 percent were deemed proficient. There was an average 30-point gap in scores between white and black 4th graders in urban districts, and a 29-point difference, on average, between white and Hispanic testtakers.
A new report from the Council of the Great City Schools looks at the achievement of Hispanic students in urban schools, a group that accounts for 37 percent of all students in the council’s member cities.
This report, Today’s Promise, Tomorrow’s Future: The Social and Educational Factors Contributing to the Outcomes of Hispanics In Urban Schools, analyzes achievement data in six areas: readiness to learn, achievement on NAEP, achievement on NAEP for selected big city districts, college and career preparedness, school experiences, and postsecondary experiences.