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.
Two grant programs aimed at advancing third grade reading have awarded millions of dollars to local communities, including several in the Grade-Level Reading Communities Network.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) yesterday announced grants to museums and libraries in 19 communities, including 10 in our Network, for early literacy and summer learning programs with a goal of ensuring that more students are reading proficiently by the end of third grade. IMLS, a federal agency, said last year that it would dedicate up to $2 million to further the work of the Campaign, but given the strong response, ended up awarding $2.5 million.
The grant winners in our Network include museums in Baltimore, MD, and Worcester, MA, and library programs in Charlotte-Mecklenberg County, NC; Denver, CO; Houston, TX; Richland County, SC; Richmond, CA; Richmond, VA; Arlington, TX; and Kansas City, MO. Read more about the grants here.
Last week, Cities of Service and ServiceNation awarded $40,000 grants to eight cities, including six in our Network, to support volunteer efforts that help more children read on grade level. ServiceNation and Cities of Service, a bipartisan coalition of mayors, awarded grants to implement the Third Grade Reads Blueprint. The program receives funding from Target as part of its effort to spend $1 billion on education by the end of 2015.
The winning cities in our Network include: Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Cincinnati, OH; Chula Vista, CA; Orlando, FL; and Kansas City, MO. Read more about the grants here.
To date, 31 local school superintendents across the country have signed on to the Call to Action, jointly sponsored by the Campaign and Attendance Works. The school leaders have pledged to make the case for good attendance, drive with data and bring together the community to address barriers to good attendance.
Some have already started using their megaphones to promote attendance. “It’s tempting to think our hands are tied because attendance is a parental responsibility, but the reality is the New Britain community can do plenty to help families get their children to school every day,” New Britain Superintendent Kelt Cooper wrote in an op-ed. Covington, KY, Superintendent Lynda Jackson and Oakland Schools Chief Tony Smith also wrote commentary pieces about attendance. To join or learn more about the call to action click here.
The Campaign is unveiling a new look for its website, providing a one-stop resource for the data, research and solutions needed to ensure that more children from low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a career and active citizenship. We’re building on our existing content and adding an interactive map of our Network sites, a research index and an expanded video library. The new site uses “responsive web design,” which ensures that it looks the same on hand-held devices as it does on computer monitors.
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.
Massachusetts Gov. Governor Deval Patrick this week signed legislation that will advance his goal of ensuring that every child learns to read proficiently by the end of third grade. The new law, which won bipartisan support, sets up an expert literacy panel that will advise the state Departments of Early Education and Care, Elementary and Secondary Education, and Higher Education. The goal is to coordinate current efforts, add new initiatives and leverage federal grants and private money to support literacy in the birth-through-third frame.
“We know that a child who can read by third grade has a better chance to succeed in his or her adult life,” Patrick said at the bill signing Wednesday. “With this legislation, we will develop a plan for students and teachers to achieve that goal, and thereby provide the best chance for our children to succeed in the 21st century global economy.”
Early literacy was a prominent topic at NBC’s Education Nation Summit this week with several speakers, including both presidential candidates, addressing the importance of reaching low-income children early. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan weighed in as well, calling early childhood “the best investment we can make.” The Campaign’s Managing Director Ralph Smith introduced a segment on early learning brain research and dual language learning on behalf of the Bezos Family Foundation. He made an impassioned call to ensure that all children learn to read. “We can teach all children to read,” he said, “if we follow this rule: Invest in early learning early.” The Campaign provided 5 Steps Civic Leaders Can Take to Improve Early Literacy on the Education Nation website.
| The Campaign has developed a Starter Kit to help coalitions within the Grade-Level Reading Communities Network identify important child health issues and integrate strategies that address them into their work to improve grade-level reading outcomes. The Starter Kit, Growing Healthy Readers, highlights five key strategies for improving health and learning from birth through third grade, showing how each is linked to reading success, especially for children from low-income families. It also offers community solutions to show how localities are employing these strategies. |  |
| The Urgency of Now, a new report by the Schott Foundation for Public Education, finds that only 52 percent of Black males and 58 percent of Latino males graduate from high school in four years, compared to 78 percent of White, non-Latino males. The report features the Campaign as one of the early solutions to turning around these high dropout rates. It also cites the need to address students being pushed out and locked out of opportunities to learn and calls for a moratorium on out-of-school suspensions. |  |