The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
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Register Now for the 2016 Funder Huddle Spread the word to current and prospective GLR Campaign funders in your community: the 2016 Funder Huddle is April 7-8, 2016, in Washington, D.C. Funders can expect an intensive peer learning experience, knowledge exchange and substantive work sessions with national experts and leaders. Funders will share and learn about:
To register, click the phrase that best describes your role:
After you register, don’t forget to follow the instructions to book your hotel room to secure the Campaign’s negotiated rate.
It’s Game Time!
Read the GLR Campaign’s press release here. GLR Campaign Provides Recommendations on Family Engagement Policies The GLR Campaign this month provided recommendations to the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on their draft policy statement on the implementation of effective family engagement practices from the early years to the early grades. We commend the departments for their leadership and for an excellent draft statement that is both a call to action and a guide to help leaders at all levels move forward on this critical issue. Read the GLR Campaign’s recommendations here.
Solving the “Math of Reading” in Baltimore
Suncoast GLR Campaign Announces Poster Contest Winners The Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (Florida) recently announced the 27 regional winners of its Attendance Awareness Poster Contest. An estimated 38,000 posters were created by students from 83 schools in Manatee and Sarasota counties. The local campaign also created apromotional video to support the contest.
On December 9, 2015, the GLR Campaign sponsored a conference call with outgoing U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in which more than 500 people participated. Throughout his tenure, Secretary Duncan has been an ardent champion for partnerships between federal, state and local governments, school districts and the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. This collective responsibility is at the heart of the GLR Campaign. Duncan said that, despite his leaving the department, “You can count me in as a soldier in the army.” Click here to view or download the webinar recording. New Federal Education Law Strengthens Many GLR Priorities On December 10, 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which reauthorized the federal education law commonly known as No Child Left Behind. The new law contains a number of provisions for which the Campaign advocated and/or which align with our priorities, including: a mandate to include non-academic indicators in state and district report cards; a requirement that states measure chronic absence in Title I schools; a requirement for annual testing in reading and math beginning at grade 3, with reporting of results by student subgroups; and support for school libraries and pediatric literacy programs. ESSA also strengthens family engagement requirements. Read the Department of Education’s summary here. California Pre-K Programs Face Shortage of Bilingual Teachers EdSource reported this month that California Head Start and state-funded preschools are facing a chronic shortage of teachers who are bilingual or trained in teaching English learners. About half of the children in those pre-K programs speak a language other than English at home, but teachers are not required by the state to be bilingual. And a recent report found that less than 40 percent of preschool teachers in California could communicate with students’ families in languages other than English.
The Express Scripts Foundation funds state and local initiatives that support school readiness and improve literacy to help prepare underserved youth for higher education and success in life. Grant amounts range from $500 – $200,000. Deadlines are March 1, June 1, September 1 and December 1, annually. The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation is accepting applications from public schools and public libraries anywhere in the United States and its territories for its mini-grants program. The funding program will award grants of up to $500 to educators to create special activities outside the standard curriculum and make time to encourage their students. Applicants must be located in the United States or its commonwealths or territories. Deadline is March 31, 2016.
A recent report from New America ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia on 65 indicators that measure their policies to ensure children are on track to read on grade level by the end of third grade. From Crawling to Walking: Ranking States on Birth – 3rd Grade Policies that Support Strong Readers is accompanied by online interactive maps that compare policies across the country. New York, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Connecticut and Wisconsin are among the top states in the report. Computers in Class May Widen Achievement Gaps in Writing A new analysis of a federal program that gave writing assignments on laptop computers to more than 10,000 fourth-graders finds that computer use may widen achievement gaps between children from low-income families and their wealthier peers. The report suggests that higher-income students are more likely to have consistent access to a computer and the Internet at home and are more comfortable typing and using advanced computer functions in the classroom. |
The Super Bowl is almost here! This weekend, the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading joined in the pre-game action in the San Francisco Bay Area to celebrate 
In a recent op-ed in the Baltimore Sun, Kimberly Manns, program director of the Baltimore Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, calls on the community to help realize the vision that “all city children read proficiently by the end of third grade.” Acknowledging that recent state test results are a “far cry from that vision,” Manns goes on to cite schools that are making a difference. “But, while classroom instruction is a huge part of the equation, the balance must come from all of us. There is a role, whether small or large, for everyone to play to ensure our children read well.” The op-ed concludes with inspiring examples of community action.
GLR Campaign Sends Off Arne Duncan With Audio Conference 
Ranking States on Early Reading Policies