Congrats to the All-America City Award Finalists and the Pacesetter Honors Finalists
Thirty-two communities have been named finalists for the All-America City Award, an honor that will be announced July 2, at the end of the Grade-Level Reading Community Network Conference in Denver. Another 25 cities and counties were named finalists for the Campaign’s own Pacesetter Honors. The communities are among the 124 charter members of the national Network, all of whom have pulled together in extraordinary collaborative efforts to create plans that should increase the number of... ... More »

New recommendations highlight importance of children’s health for improving educational outcomes
Child health and wellness are key for all students to learn and achieve. Today’s children who are struggling academically could become the first generation to live shorter and less healthy lives than their parents. To combat this, the Healthy Schools Campaign and Trust for America's Health have released policy recommendations on how schools can best support their students' health, so that the students can focus on learning in the classroom. Called Health in Mind, the recommendations... ... More »

New report shows alarming rates of chronic absence
An estimated 5 million to 7.5 million students miss nearly a month of school every year, a trend that goes largely unnoticed despite the devastating effects on student achievement, according to  a new report released today and featured in the New York Times. The report, compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Everyone Graduates Center and the Get Schooled Foundation, offers the first national glimpse at the prevalence of chronic absenteeism in our schools. Johns Hopkins researchers Robert Balfanz and... ... More »

Video Contest for All-America City Contenders!
Every year the National Civic League holds an All-America City Award Video Contest.  This year, because of  its partnership with the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, the group is communities participating in the network to submit a short video on their groundbreaking efforts to get more students reading proficiently by the end of third grade. The video contest is strictly voluntary and will have no influence on the outcome of the 2012 All-America City/Grade -Level Reading Awards.... ... More »

In Hartford, “Third Grade Promise” Extends to Whole Community
Here's a guest blog from Richard Sussman , director of the Brighter Futures Initiative for the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving , which is part of Hartford's on grade-level reading coalition. As we await the Denver decision, it has become clear that what was once considered to be largely a public school commitment to proficiency for all students in the third grade (The Third Grade Promise) has become a Community Promise. The core set of initial partners... ... More »