The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
The Campaign is a collaborative effort by foundations, nonprofit partners, states and communities across the nation to ensure that more children in low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a career and active citizenship.
Massachusetts and Connecticut have been recognized as State Pacesetters for their leadership in addressing the challenges that keep many low-income students from learning to read proficiently.
Campaign Managing Director Ralph Smith delivered the Pacesetter certificates to Connecticut on Oct. 10 and to Massachusetts on Oct. 15 and 16, praising state officials, legislative leaders, key advocates and foundations in each state. He also visited several cities and towns in the Grade-Level Reading Communities Network. The Campaign awards Pacesetter Honors to states that are “leading by example” to solve one or more of the challenges that can undermine early literacy: chronic absenteeism, summer learning loss and a lack of school readiness.
Read more about Connecticut in this handout.
Read more about Massachusetts in this handout.
Education Week featured a commentary piece in its Oct. 10 edition by the Campaign’s policy adviser Barbara O’Brien, outlining how early intervention should play a key 
role in any discussion about third-grade promotion policies. In “How Serious Are We About Early Learning,” O’Brien writes: “Long before we make the difficult decision of whether to retain a student, we need to ensure that our schools and our communities do everything in their power to give that child a good start in life.” O’Brien, a senior fellow at the Piton Foundation in Denver, is the former lieutenant governor of Colorado.
Ralph Smith, the Campaign’s managing director, recently joined two school superintendents, Andrés Alonso of Baltimore and Tony Smith of Oakland, to discuss the Campaign’s goals and our joint Call to Action with Attendance Works. The session at the Council of the Great City Schools conference in Indianapolis featured strategies for addressing chronic absence and other barriers to early literacy. New York City, Salt Lake City and Indianapolis recently joined the list of districts participating in the Call to Action, bringing the signature count to 51: 48 superintendents, two charter school leaders and one Head Start program director.
Stay on top of all that is new with the Campaign and with 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. Additionally, get the latest updates on federal initiatives, state campaigns and local efforts, or read recent studies on child development and literacy.
The federal Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) Program has awarded $28 million for 46 grants to organizations and school districts working to improve literacy skills for students in high-need districts and schools. The grantees include such national groups as Reading Is Fundamental, Raising a Reader, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Children’s Defense Fund, Parents as Teachers and the Children’s Reading Foundation, as well as 11 local districts connected to the Grade-Level Reading Communities Network.
Reading Is Fundamental received the largest grant, $4.8 million, to launch a new program aimed to combat summer reading loss among children living in poverty. The program will reach 22,000 students in 200 schools – in districts where at least a quarter of the students are living below the poverty line.
Other grants go to organizations and districts in 21 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to implementing new reading programs and enhancing existing literacy efforts, grantees will use the new funding to provide free books for children and families. The grant awardees in our network include districts and schools in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, GA; Indianapolis, IN; Kansas City, MO; Camden, NJ; New York City, Houston, TX; Austin, TX; and Milwaukee, WI.
The U.S. Department of Education recently recognized 24 community-based organizations, including some working with our Grade-Level Reading Communities Network, as Together for Tomorrow (TFT) Challenge winners for the 2012-2013 school year.
Together for Tomorrow is a joint initiative of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the Education Department and the Corporation for National and Community Service. TFT Challenge honorees were recognized for their efforts to target disadvantaged schools and set measurable goals to improve attendance, behavior, course performance and college access.
Those recognized in our network include the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, Dubuque, IA, and United Way for Southeastern Michigan in Detroit.
Cities of Service recently announced the award of nearly $1 million to 18 cities across the nation in its first round of Impact Volunteering Fund grants, aimed to help cities use volunteers to tackle pressing local challenges.
The grants, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies and administered by Cities of Service, range from $25,000 to $100,000. The programs are led from the mayor’s office in each city and focus on several priority issues, including education. Baltimore received a grant for a school attendance project, while Orlando and Providence won support for literacy programs.
A full list of grantees and their local efforts may be found here.
The Campaign and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation recently released a new report, “Don’t Dys Our Kids: Dyslexia and the Quest for Grade-Level Reading Proficiency,” that provides a far-reaching overview of the history and progress in understanding and meeting the needs of children with dyslexia, as well as the challenges that must be overcome to ensure that all students can read proficiently by the end of third grade. The report also highlights best practices and examples of solutions that are already working in communities. Based on interviews with nearly 30 experts, the report includes a 
collection of recommended actions for advancing this movement.
On Wed., Nov. 14 from 1-2 p.m. ET, the Tremaine Foundation and the Campaign will host a webinar to discuss the report’s recommended actions and highlight successful efforts in communities. Register today!
To view the full report, action brief and summaries, please click here.