The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
January 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.
PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are enlisting their network of public television stations and vast online resources to advance the Campaign’s goals. In a webinar last week, PBS Senior Vice President for Education Rob Lippincott noted, “There are so many ways that we use a lot of the same language and share the same goals for reaching into our communities to improve literacy.”
When it comes to connecting with children before they start school, no one has a broader reach than public television. Increasingly the efforts go beyond shows like “Sesame Street” and “The Electric Company” to a vibrant web presence. This includes games for young children, a six-week summer learning program for older children, and tips for parents, day care providers, and teachers. For low-income children, particularly, PBS’s efforts are helping to develop the vocabulary and cognitive skills they need for kindergarten.
The webinar allowed the Campaign to share its strategy with PBS stations across the country, and allowed stations to detail the good work they’re already doing in such places as Iowa, Buffalo, Houston, and Richmond, Va.
The importance of grade-level reading and the Campaign’s work was highlighted last week at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ 80th Winter Meeting in Washington, DC. As part of last Friday’s plenary session, Mayor Kevin Johnson of Sacramento led an Education Reform Panel during which he rallied mayors to support their cities in submitting action plans by March 12 for the All-America City Grade-Level Reading Award.
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.
The Campaign has long proclaimed the importance of aligning pre-kindergarten instruction and curriculum with what’s taught in the primary grades. Now a respected education research organization has declared PreK-third alignment the No. 1 policy area to watch in 2012.
A new report from the Education Commission of the States predicts which issues have the most potential to effect change this year. The report, “12 for 2012: Issues to Move Education Forward in 2012,” emphasizes that integrating PreK-third grade would create a greater likelihood that all students will be proficient readers by the end of third grade. ECS specifically highlights the Campaign’s leadership in promoting third grade reading.
As the report predicts, states are already making PreK-third grade a priority:
- In Wisconsin, a task force spearheaded by Gov. Scott Walker and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers released a comprehensive action plan this month to boost reading scores.
The recommendations include requiring schools to screen all kindergartners, which would allow teachers to intervene earlier for students who need more support when learning to read. Walker has already set aside funds for universal screening. The task force also recommends that teachers focus explicitly on reading instruction in their professional development.
- Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is proposing a kindergarten readiness measure as well as a reading skill level for students to advance beyond third grade.
- Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick included third-grade reading as the first item on his four-point education agenda. His state was one of nine to win a Race to the Top—Early Learning Challenge grant. Patrick has proposed a pilot kindergarten readiness program in the state’s low-income Gateway Cities.
- Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is focused on improving third-grade literacy, and Chair of the House Education Committee, Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, is preparing a major bill on the subject.
- Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal put money in his budget for reading mentors and called third grade reading a strategic benchmark. “When we fail to invest in our youngest students,” he said in his state of the state address this month, “we are forced to spend money on remediation for the remainder of their academic careers.”
Preschoolers can learn key language skills from their peers, a new study finds. The study, “Peer Effects in Preschool Classrooms: Is Children’s Language Growth Associated With Their Classmates’ Skills?” shows that students who began preschool with limited language skills improved dramatically when grouped with classmates who were more advanced.
These findings suggest changes are needed in the current preschool approach, with federally-funded programs mostly populated by students from lower-income families, while private programs serve children from more affluent families. The often vast vocabulary gap between low-income and middle- or high-income students has been tied to lower academic achievement and higher illiteracy rates later in life.
Researchers found that preschoolers saw a more dramatic improvement in their language skills when they were grouped in classrooms with high-skills students. Meanwhile children who began school with higher language assessment scores were in no way negatively affected by learning alongside low-skills students.
What implications could this have for education policy and teaching literacy? “It might mean that classroom composition is affecting growth of language skill, even as much as the content and quality of instruction,” Laura M. Justice, one of the study’s authors and an education professor at Ohio State University told Early Ed Watch. “Policymakers need to think very seriously about how preschool classrooms are composed.”