Advocates, educators, parents  and foundations in Arkansas came together this weekend for a two-day forum to ensure that by 2020 all children are reading at grade level by the end of third grade. Currently one in four don’t hit that mark, based on state tests.

The Arkansas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading  offered a town hall meeting and workshops on how to expand school readiness, encourage parent engagement and combat chronic absence and summer learning loss.

“Third grade marks the shift from learning to read to reading to learn. Proficiency by the end of third grade is critical to our students’ future academic success and the future success of our state,” said Dr. Sherece Y. West-Scantlebury, president and CEO of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation said in a statement. “We must make third grade reading a state priority to guarantee a better future for all Arkansas children and families and the Arkansas economy. This convening of more than 200 Arkansans is evidence of the increasing importance of grade level reading in our state.” The foundation and the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families were the lead sponsors for the event.

The forum began Friday with a keynote address from Ralph Smith, managing director of the national Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and senior vice president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation who urged advocates to unleash the “talent, energy and imagination of hundreds of thousands of people across the state.” Smith also stressed how early literacy is a foundational skill that influences not only the future of our children but also our stature in the world. “If we can’t teach our kids to read why should the rest of the world believe we can teach them anything?” he asked.

The forum also included:

• A town hall meeting with state education, business, and policy leaders
• Workshops for parents, educators, community leaders and policymakers on school readiness, summer learning loss, parent and community engagement, and cultural competency
• Preliminary results from a statewide analysis of chronic absence
• Awards to honor Arkansas champions of grade-level reading