February 2014

The GLR Campaign is a collaborative effort by foundations, nonprofit partners, states and communities across the nation to ensure that more children in low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a career and active citizenship.

White House, Philanthropy Initiative to Highlight 3rd Grade Reading

A new White House and philanthropic initiative focusing on young men of color will draw national attention to the significant early reading gap that sets up many African-American and Hispanic students for academic difficulty and dropping out.  President Barack Obama spoke about the importance of third-grade reading at a news conference Thursday, saying, “By boosting reading levels, we can help more of our kids make the grade, keep on advancing, reach that day that so many parents dream of until it comes close, and then you start tearing up. And that’s when they’re walking across the stage holding that high school diploma.

Ten foundations — the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The California Endowment, the Ford Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Kapor Center for Social Impact, the Open Society Foundations, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation — have already committed $150 million toward programs helping young men of color reach their full potential in school, work and life. Several corporate sponsors are also joining the initiative.

Read more here.

Volunteer Week Offers Chance to Recognize Reading Tutors

Promoting volunteerism and citizen service to help young children learn to read well has been part of the GLR Campaign’s agenda from the outset, reflecting the reality that this support will be essential to reach large numbers of children. National Volunteer Week, to be celebrated April 6-12, offers an opportunity to lift up the value of volunteer reading tutors and honor those doing the work.

We will share more in early March, but for now, we are asking communities and partners to send us the names of organizations you work with that provide reading tutors or share your own efforts. We are creating a special web page to honor and celebrate these groups. Photos are welcome, too. Submit the organization names on this form.

Here are some ideas for celebrating National Volunteer Week:

• Plan an event for tutors at a local school or library.
• Use your social media platforms to recognize tutors and organizations.
• Browse the Points of Light Celebrate Service toolkit for ideas and resources.

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March 3rd Is Read Across America Day

GLR communities are gearing up to commemorate Dr. Seuss’s birthday next week with Read Across America celebrations and messaging focused on what parents can do to promote early reading:

• Vero Beach, Fla., is planning a family reading party with children’s author Marc Brown on March 3 and distributing free books to the first 250 children that attend.
• Read On Arizona created a communications toolkit containing ideas, articles and social media messages that can be used to promote literacy and Read Across America.
• The Georgia Campaign for Grade-Level Reading will launch on March 5 at the State Capitol Building, where the governor and first lady will announce that March is Read Across Georgia month.
• Springfield, Mass., where Theodor Geisel a.k.a. Dr. Seuss was born, has a full slate of events planned in museums, libraries and schools.

In addition, more than 50 communities and partners have signed up on our partnership page with Read Aloud 15 MINUTES, which provides resources encouraging parents to carve out time for reading to young children. For more ideas on how your community can promote literacy while celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday, visit our website here.

Bright Spots Offer Evidence, Inspiration

Based on the success of Tell Our Story and the growing interest in what is happening in communities across the Grade-Level Reading Network, the Network Communities Support Center (NCSC) is launching a weekly publication called Bright Spots. We hope to capture the most inspiring and promising work that is already underway in the more than 140 Network communities working to achieve progress on school readiness, school attendance, summer learning and grade-level reading by 2016. We hope that you will use these stories to steal shamelessly and share seamlessly with your colleagues across the country.

For more information and to nominate a community to be featured as a Bright Spot, please contact Betsy Rubiner at brubiner@gradelevelreading.net

Providence Receives Grant for Unique Classroom Approach

Providence schools and Ready to Learn Providence were awarded a $3 million Investing in Innovation grant from the U.S. Department of Education to implement a program that targets how children learn rather than just what they learn.

Chosen for funding from a pool of nearly 600 applicants, the district’s “Mind in the Making” program will help parents equip their children with the “soft skills” that help them learn more effectively – such as focus and self-control, critical thinking, taking on challenges and communicating.  The four-year grant will be used to train faculty, staff and parents at Providence schools.

Also in February, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras announced the launch of Providence Talks, an innovative program that tracks the number of words heard and spoken by children ages 4 and younger and provides coaching for participating families.

GLR Campaign Welcomes Dollar General as Co-Investor

The Dollar General Literacy Foundation has joined the co-investors in the GLR Campaign, pledging to support the Campaign’s efforts to strengthen state-level and regional collaborations with a special interest in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The Dollar General Literacy Foundation is a leader in addressing literacy for youth and adults, awarding $81 million in grants in 40 states over the past two decades.

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Parent Involvement in Schools Linked to Improved Academic Outcomes

The Power of Parents, a new report from EdSource and New America Media, highlights research connecting parent involvement in their children’s school to positive outcomes for students, including greater academic success, improved attitudes toward school and a reduction in at-risk behavior. The research also shows that parent involvement is correlated with more teacher satisfaction.

State of the State’s Early Childhood Data Systems

A new report from the Early Childhood Data Collaborative looks at early childhood data systems in all 50 states to gauge how effectively they are linking data from early childhood programs to other state data systems such as K-12, health and social services. Read the full report here.