The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is a
determined effort to mobilize philanthropic leadership around
moving the needle on third grade reading over the next decade.

The Campaign’s June webinars, held earlier this
week, included an extended discussion of Massachusetts’
literacy initiative. The Bay State leads the nation in the
number and percentage of early childhood programs, which have
proven effective in helping to get children school-ready. But
with more than a third of Massachusetts third graders failing
to meet proficiency standards on the state reading test, state
agencies and private partners  are working together to
create greater alignment of programs and services and ensure
access to high-quality early education for all children. State
legislators have also weighed in with a bill introduced
earlier this year to address the urgency in boosting third
grade reading achievement. The bill, An Act Relative to Third
Grade Reading Proficiency, currently has 60 legislative
sponsors.

Presenters for the webinars included
Margaret Blood, founder and president of the
policy and advocacy organization Strategies for Children,
Commissioner Sherri Killins, of the
Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, and
Sally Fuller, a project director at the Irene
E. and George A. Davis Foundation.

Blood described how
Strategies for Children has been working over the past decade
to expand access to early education for all Massachusetts
children. Together with Commissioner Killins the group
emphasizes the critical role of parents in supporting their
children’s literacy development, as well as the importance of
data-driven professional development and language-rich pre-K
to third grade curricula to improve reading proficiency
statewide. Fuller described how philanthropy has helped to
drive cross-sector collaboration, and how governmental,
non-profit and business partners are all pushing to make
third-grade reading proficiency a priority in the
state.

Slide presentations and a recording of the
webinar will be available on the Campaign
website soon.

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The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading joined
local leaders in kicking off an initiative in Los Angeles this
month to focus more attention on  third-grade reading
proficiency in the nation’s second largest school district.
The LAUSD Committee of the Whole met on June 21 to discuss the
importance of grade-level reading and related accountability
measures in the contract for new Superintendent John
Deasy.

“We must be relentless about holding schools
accountable for educating all children,” said Ralph
Smith, who represented the Campaign at the event.
“But schools cannot succeed unless the community as a whole
steps into the circle of accountability.” The Los Angeles Area
Chamber of Commerce has signed onto the Campaign and will work
to establish its presence in L.A.

Chicago also welcomes a new
superintendent, Jean-Claude Brizard, who, the Chicago Tribune reports, will
work to lift “the percentage of students passing the state
standardized test for third-grade reading from 57.8 to 70
percent” and “enroll more children in preschool and
kindergarten.”

A media teleconference was held on June 21
for key members of local, national and trade press to discuss
the importance of parent engagement in children’s literacy
development and later academic success. The call, titled
“Raising Readers: Why Educators and Congress
are Advocating for Greater Family Engagement
in Education,”included Congresswoman
Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), who described the
Family Engagement in Education Act, legislation she introduced
last month with Todd Russell Platts (R-Penn.).
Gabrielle Miller, executive director of Raising A Reader and Elizabeth Burke
Bryant, executive director of Rhode Island Kids
Count, outlined the role of parents in building children’s
language and early literacy skills, while Tomas
Hanna, Associate Superintendent for Academic Support
for the Philadelphia Public Schools talked about his
district’s parent engagement initiative.

Listen to the teleconference here, and share the link with your colleagues
and local media.

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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 news 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.

Issues related to grade-level reading have been
garnering increasing attention among city leaders and in the
media recently. In Providence, R.I., Mayor Angel
Taveras outlined
his vision for the city’s public school system, which
reflects the Campaign’s goal.

“We must ensure that
Providence students are reading at or above grade level by the
third grade,” said Taveras, who added that he plans to focus
on early childhood education opportunities and other services
to ensure that young children are school-ready by the time
they reach kindergarten. Taveras joins several other municipal
leaders, including Sacramento Mayor Kevin
Johnson, in targeting grade-level reading as a
critical milestone for student success.

Watch
Taveras’ video address here.

In this story, Education Week dug
deep into the importance of third-grade reading proficiency
and growing number of state and local policies related to the
Campaign’s goals. Early childhood education and a parent’s
role in literacy development were featured in this
piece in the New York Times and this
article on Yahoo! News.

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The importance of attendance for student
achievement has also been in the news. A new study by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity
(CFE) shows that school absenteeism is dragging down student
achievement among New York City’s fourth graders and making it
harder to improve the city’s struggling schools. Even a child
with good attendance performed slightly worse at an elementary
school with high absentee rates suggesting that excessive
absences across the board can undermine the quality of
instruction for all students. Check out this New York
Times article on how the city
is working to combat chronic absenteeism.

A new study from the RAND Corporation, examines
students’ loss of knowledge and educational skills during the
summer months. The study finds that this loss is cumulative
over the course of a student’s career and further widens the
achievement gap.

The comprehensive study, “Making
Summer Count: How Summer Programs Can Boost Children’s
Learning,” was commissioned by The Wallace Foundation and
conducted by RAND Education. Using extensive analysis of
existing literature combined with field research, it examines
student summer learning loss and gain, the characteristics of
effective summer learning programs and the costs associated
with such programs. It also gives specific recommendations on
how school districts can overcome barriers to establishing
successful programs.

Researchers find that not all summer learning
programs provide equal educational benefits to students, and
many programs suffer from low attendance. Students experience
the most benefits when the summer programs include
individualized instruction, parental involvement and small
class sizes, according to the study. Despite the clear
benefits from these programs, many school districts question
the cost-effectiveness of summer learning programs and a
significant number have discontinued them as a result of
budget cuts.