The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
Date:
Cities across America can talk about their school readiness programs, attendance campaigns and summer learning initiatives. But few cities pull all three community solutions together to move the needle on third-grade reading proficiency.
That’s why we’re so excited that next year’s All-America City Awards will go to communities that have developed the most comprehensive, realistic and sustainable plans to increase grade-level reading proficiency by the end of third grade.
Communities across the country are building coalitions and developing or expanding on strategies in three areas that have real potential to drive improvements in grade-level reading:
- School readiness – too many young children show up for school not ready to learn
- School attendance – too many children in grades K-3 miss too many days of school
- Summer learning – too many children in the early grades lose ground over the summer months
All these problems hit low-income children harder and contribute to the achievement gap with their more-affluent peers.
The awards will be presented in June 2012 to the 10 communities with the best plans to increase grade-level reading proficiency by the end of third grade. Between now and then, more than 50 cities will begin developing proposals, tracking data and working collaboratively among city, school, nonprofit and philanthropic leaders to identify and leverage existing resources and programming.
The Campaign and its partners–the National Civic League, National League of Cities and United Way Worldwide–plan to offer technical assistance and peer learning opportunities to cities that participate in the award process. Attendance Works will be a part of that effort, helping communities learn to calculate their chronic absence rates and intervene with at-risk kids.
Other benefits include:
- Access to leading national experts on the three community solution areas;
- Exposure to well-researched programs and practices that can work in your community;
- Invitation-only national events and briefings by federal officials;
- Access to peers in other cities doing similar work; and
- Opportunities to interact with funders and other Campaign supporters.
You can be part of this network of communities by submitting a letter of intent by October 14, 2011. Cities will emerge from the competition with a better understanding of the barriers that keep two-thirds of American fourth graders from reaching reading proficiency. And they’ll emerge with a set of community solutions, given their particular assets and challenges.
If your community already has a strong early education program, talk to your mayor, school superintendent, United Way chapter, Chamber of Commerce or other civic leaders about broadening it to the full slate of grade-level reading issues. If you’re doing good work, but haven’t started an attendance campaign or a summer learning initiative, this is the perfect opportunity.
To get started, check out: