The campaign for Grade Level Readingis determined effort to mobilize philanthropic leadership around moving the needle on third grade reading over the next decade.

Target announced this week that 42 schools from across
the country will receive a new library as part of the 2011 Target School
Library Makeover program. Education experts and advocates such as Alma
Powell of the America’s Promise Alliance and Sir Ken Robinson, along with
elected officials including Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), chairman of the
House Education and the Workforce Committee, and Rep. Gene Green
(D-Texas), attended the announcement on May 24 at the Library of Congress
in Washington. School leaders from the winning elementary schools also
participated in a Principal Summit designed to inspire educators, provide
best practices for cultivating reading skills by using their new
libraries and explore literacy strategies.

Target has already completed more than 75 library makeovers, which
include new furniture, lighting, technology and 2,000 books per site. The
effort is part of its commitment to invest $500 million in literacy
efforts by 2015.

“Education is at the heart of our giving and we are compelled to do more
to address the crisis in America and ensure our students are reaching
critical milestones on the path to graduation, including the ability to
read proficiently by the end of third grade,” said Laysha Ward, president
of community relations, Target and Target Foundation.

You can find a list of the schools here, and news coverage of the announcement here.

Stay
on top of all that is new with the Campaign and with the progress of
grade-level reading by making a regular visit to the website: www.gradelevelreading.net. The site
offers a comprehensive news source on issues related to early childhood,
reading development and achievement. Get the latest updates on federal
initiatives or state campaigns and read recent studies on child
development and literacy.

The federal government will devote $500 million to a new
Race to the Top competition to establish and expand high-quality early
learning programs.
The Early Learning Challenge fund, announced May 25 by U.S. Secretary of
Education Arne
Duncan and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, will
provide competitive grants to states that develop programs addressing the
health, social, emotional and educational outcomes for young children
from birth to age 5. Duncan stressed that the investments would
emphasize expanded access to quality child care and preschool programs,
especially for disadvantaged children.

“To win the future, our children need a strong start,” said Secretary
Duncan. “The Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge encourages states
to develop bold and comprehensive plans for raising the quality of early
learning programs across America.”

Sebelius said she hopes states will develop innovative ideas for
coordinating multiple funding streams for early education.

“Our collective health and financial security as a nation will depend on
high-quality investments during the critical early years of a child’s
life,” she said.

States applying for funds under the Race to the Top-Early Learning
Challenge will be encouraged to increase access to quality early learning
programs for low-income and disadvantaged children, design integrated and
transparent systems that align their early care and education programs,
bolster training and support systems for the early learning workforce,
create robust evaluation systems and help parents make informed decisions
about early care for their children. Read more in this announcement from the Education Department.

“Today’s announcement is a remarkable victory for all of us who care
about our nation’s competitiveness, security and ability to break the
cycle of intergenerational poverty,” said Ralph Smith, who was invited to
represent the Campaign at the event.

The more than 70 funders and 50 national organizations that support the
Campaign, Smith said, believe that increasing the number and proportion
of children from low-income families who are reading on grade level by
the end of third grade is a key strategy for ensuring those goals.

“Success in the early grades is inextricably interwoven with our
willingness to invest in early learning in the early years,” he said.
“The Early Learning Challenge Fund announced today is proof positive that
this administration gets it. The administration, with the leadership from
Congress, understands the urgency of early learning.”

Other speakers at the event included: George Kaiser, Founder of The
George Kaiser Family Foundation as well as chairman of BOK Financial
Corp. and GBK Corp.; Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Clara L. Adams-Ender; and
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams.

The announcement drew considerable media interest, including this
coverage in The
Washington Post and Education
Week.

Millions of New Yorkers and visitors to the Big Apple will
get a glimpse of the value of early learning investments from a video
that will be played on a large television screen in Times Square as part
of a public service campaign by the First Five Years Fund. The 30-second
video, titled Early
Learning Matters, will run through July 8.

“Our hope is that Early
Learning Matters will help bring the importance of early
childhood education to the center of the American conversation,” said
Cornelia Grumman, executive director of First Five Years Fund. “And where
better to do that than amid the bustle of millions passing by Times
Square in New York City.”

Watch the extended version of the video here.

Children who ingest lead, even in small amounts, tend to
underperform peers who were not exposed to the substance, according to a
study of Connecticut students that looked at achievement on reading and
math tests.

“The Impact of Early Childhood Lead Exposure on Educational
Test Performance among Connecticut Schoolchildren,” looked at blood lead
levels in Caucasian and African American children under the age of 7 and
their later performance on the fourth grade state assessments.

Children with increased blood lead levels had lower test
scores, on average, after controlling for individual level risk factors.
African American children were more likely to have higher blood lead
levels than white children, which is suggestive of the role that lead
exposure may play in contributing to the achievement gap between black
and white children, according to the study. The findings are based on a previous publication from the Children’s Environmental
Health Initiative on the relationship between early childhood lead
exposure and performance on end-of-grade tests in North Carolina.

More information and a link to the study is available from
the CEHI at Duke University.