The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
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Last week, the Literacy Funders Network gathered in Pittsburgh, and grade-level reading was high on the agenda. Foundations from a number of the Grade-Level Reading Communities Network sites attended, as did national partners such as the United Way, the National Center for Family Literacy and Literacy Powerline.
The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation presented its report connecting dyslexia and grade-level reading. ad one of our members, And Doro Bush Koch from the Barbara Bush Foundation on Family Literacy gave a keynote address, stressing the value of engaging whole families in learning to read.
“Illiteracy and low literacy are a national crisis,” she said, adding that many employers say it’s hard to find people literate enough for entry-level jobs.
“It’s a problem that could eventually threaten our entire way of life,” she said. “Without empowering whole families with the tools they need to succeed and excel … we run the risk of being a second-rate nation.”
The event’s sponsors–the National Conference on Family Literacy and Literacy Powerline–are hosting the Engaged Learning, Engaged Families, Engaged Communities conference in Louisville for literacy coalitions and collaborations across the country. They’re hoping to draw a number of Grade-Level Reading Communities Network members to the event, which begins April 28.
This week they issued a call for proposals for the April conference’s concurrent sessions. The submission deadline is Friday, Nov. 2. For more details, click here.