The Campaign for GRADE-LEVELREADING
NETWORK COMMUNITIES
SUPPORT CENTER
The Network Communities Support Center (NCSC) functions as a hub, broker and accelerator that
supports communities in producing results
hub: Lunch at the Library began as program offering children free nutritious meals and
literacy activities at public libraries during the summer in Oakland, California. It now reaches 50
libraries in 18 California library systems and is being replicated in Georgia and Idaho.
broker: The Results Scorecard is a data-driven decision-making tool that many Promise
Neighborhoods grantees, United Ways and other initiatives are using. More than 30 GLR Network
communities now have access to the tool and technical assistance in how to implement it through
the NCSC.
accelerator: Pacesetter Honors went to 51 communities that participated in all three
messaging and mobilizing events supported by the NCSC in 2013: Summer Learning Day,
Attendance Awareness Month and Tell Our Story.
Communities and states need access to a one-stop, fast-track resource with the capacity to help them
find answers to six essential questions:
1. What is the short list of essentials that will combine to predict the desired result (increases in school readiness and decreases in chronic absenteeism and summer slide)?
2. What are the proven and/or promising strategies, programs and practices connected with each essential?
3. What capacities, competencies and infrastruc-ture are needed to implement the strategies, programs and practices?
4. What policies are needed to enable, scale and sustain these programs and practices?
5. What does success look like? (Milestones)
6. How do we know whether we are making progress? (Key Progress Indicators)
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE & SUPPORT WHAT WORKS? WHERE? WHY?
engages 900+ people
archives of 50+ sessions
learning and attendance
Successful Parents initiatives
throughout the country
leads and implementation partners
Online PeerLearning
Community
Short-termProject-based TA
Workshops& Training
ConsultativeSessions
AdvisoryServices
FacilitatedPeer
LearningNetworks
Webinars
High Tech to High Touch
Range of Campaign’s Direct Investment/Involvement
Number of Communities
“Hub” by serving as the curator of communities ofpractice and as thenavigator for thedistribution channel
“Broker” by offeringcommunities access to tools, experts and information needed to develop the capacities(leadership, resources and skills) to execute their plans
“Accelerator” by findingand creating catalyticevents, awards andother opportunitiesdesigned to increase thescope and pace of change
2016Results
The Campaign for GRADE-LEVELREADING
SCHOOL READINESSMATTERS
the campaign helps by:
Raising awareness, with an emphasis on outreach
to parents and caregivers (Read Across America
Day, Read Aloud 15 MINUTES, PBS)
Mobilizing community engagement, civic action
and policy advocacy (Sesame Workshop and the
Alliance for Early Success)
Establishing the Network Communities Support
Center (NCSC) to serve as a one-stop, fast-track
resource providing technical assistance and sup-
port to GLR Network communities
Finding, developing and incubating efforts to
enhance parents’ knowledge, skills and access to
supports for nurturing early literacy and language
development (Successful Parents Initiatives and
Book-Rich Environments Initiative)
IMPROVING SCHOOL READINESS: KEY STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS
home visiting and other programs that offer messages, tools and supports to help parents and caregivers succeed in promoting early language and
literacy and healthy on-track child development
universal comprehensive health and developmental screening with
appropriate follow-up, intervention and supports
community-wide efforts to create language-rich and book-rich environments
for children before they start school
policy supports, resources and programs to improve availability of
and access to high-quality early care and learning opportunities for children across a variety
of programs and settings
too many children start school already far behind their peers and never catch up. Especially for low-income children, this readiness gap predicts a persistent achievement gap and di-minished prospects for reading on grade level by the end of third grade.
research confirms:
Low-income children are twice as likely to experi-ence developmental delays as their higher-income peers. Poverty-associated trauma and toxic stress exacerbate these developmental delays and com-promise social-emotional health.
Low-income children are significantly more likely to be in poor health and are less likely to receive adequate treatment for vision, hearing, dental caries and other health conditions that could compromise physical and cognitive development.
By 18 months, low-income toddlers are already several months behind more advantaged children in language proficiency. By age 4, low-income children would have heard 30 million fewer words than their more affluent peers.
Low-income children have few if any age- appropriate books in their homes — there is one book per 300 children in low-income neighbor-hoods versus 13 books per child in middle- income neighborhoods.
Low-income children have less access to high-quality developmentally appropriate early care and learning opportunities.
CAMPAIGN MOBILIZATIONTHE CHALLENGE
GLR School Readiness Display_r11.indd 1 6/3/14 2:17 PM
The Campaign for GRADE-LEVELREADING
ATTENDANCEMATTERS
the campaign helps by:
www.attendance
works.org
IMPROVING ATTENDANCE: KEY STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS
community-wide attendance awareness campaigns to
help parents understand and own the importance of good attendance and find out about
supports that address barriers to getting to school
school-level messaging, modeling and incentives to
nurture a culture and cultivate the habits of excellent attendance
state, school district, school and community partner efforts to build early warning and rapid response systems to reduce and prevent
chronic absence
cross-sector coordination to identify and ameliorate the health challenges
that are the major contributors to chronic absence
too many students fall behindduring the year because they miss too much school and too much instructional time. For low-income children, poor attendance compounds the risk of lower reading achievement.
research confirms:
absences in the preschool and early elementary
10% or more of school are less likely to read
that much school; in some communities, those numbers climb to one in four.
-mance is especially hard hit when they miss school, are four times more likely to be chroni-cally absent in kindergarten and three times
peers.
asthma, and children with asthma miss three times more school than children without the
more school due to dental disease than their higher-income peers.
associated with decreased achievement for all students.
The Campaign for GRADE-LEVELREADING
SUCCESSFULPARENTS
illustrative programs in GLR communities
School Readiness
Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors www.ap-od.org
Parents as Teachers www.parentsasteachers.org
Reach Out and Read www.reachoutandread.org
Text4baby www.text4baby.org
Attendance
Parent-Teacher Home Visit Project www.pthvp.org
The Family Engagement Partnership
http://1.usa.gov/1pOI4aW
New Britain Data, Parent Engagement and
Home Visiting http://bit.ly/REVyGu
Summer Learning
Passport to Success www.familiesinschools.org/
Summer Matters www.learninginafterschool.org/
documents/SummerMatters.pdf
Richmond Public Library Summer Reading
Program www.richmondpubliclibrary.org/
summerreading2013/
Some parenting programs are effective at improving
both parenting and child outcomes (Nurse-Family
Partnership, PALS, PEEP, Incredible Years and Early
Head Start). Brookings, Social Mobility Memos,
January 27, 2014
STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS
Community-wide policies and programs that provide information, resources, tools and
supports will enable parents to:
promote and track early childhood developmental milestones and recognize
early warning signs of potential developmental delays
recognize and address environmental hazards in their homes and commu-
nities that lead to elevated blood lead levels, childhood injuries and triggers for asthma and
other respiratory diseases
expose their children to a wide range of age-appropriate books and reading
materials in the home and in the community
close the word gap by talking, singing and reading to their children
engage in nurturing and responsive interactions with their young children
seek the trusting relationships that will allow partnering with providers,
educators and teachers to co-produce good outcomes (attendance, academic performance
and behavior) for their children
access and engage their children in summer activities and summer
programs that match up to their children’s academic needs
if more low-income parents were supported to succeedin their roles as first teacher, best advocate, coach and most important role model, then more low-income children would be ready for school, have higher attendance rates and sustain learning gains during the summer months — all contributing to more low-income children reading at grade level by the end of third grade.
however, too few parents havethe information, supports and tools that would enable them to know, understand and make good decisions consistent with what the research confirms:
Prenatal and well-baby care improves healthy births and reduces the incidence of developmental delays and the consequent impact on future well-being and academic success.
Talking, singing, reading and engaging in nurturing and responsive behavior will enhance language, literacy, social and cognitive skills critical for early school success.
High-quality home visiting programs will contribute to improved parenting skills, child development and parent engagement and increased student attendance rates.
Participation in high-quality family engagement programs improves student attendance.
Receiving information about the risk of summer learning loss motivates parents to take actions to ensure that their children keep learning after the school year ends.
CAMPAIGN MOBILIZATIONTHE CHALLENGE
GLR Successful Parenting Display_r12.indd 1 6/3/14 2:27 PM
The Campaign for GRADE-LEVELREADING
SUMMER LEARNING MATTERS
the campaign helps by:
Raising awareness by co-sponsoring Summer
Learning Day in collaboration with the National
Summer Learning Association (NSLA) and others
Mobilizing community engagement, civic action
and policy advocacy, e.g., through the New Vision
for Summer School Network
Expanding the “big tent” to include libraries and
museums through partnership with the Institute
of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the
Urban Libraries Council (ULC)
Establishing the Network Communities Support
Center (NCSC) to serve as a one-stop, fast-track
resource providing technical assistance and support
to GLR Network communities
Recruiting NSLA (www.summerlearning.org) as
a key Implementation Partner and promoting use
of its guides, toolkits and quality measures
PREVENTING THE “SUMMER SLIDE”: KEY STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS
community-wide messaging about the importance of summer learning,
including parents and caregivers reading to and with their children over the summer months,
and about programs, services and opportunities that are available
summer reading campaigns to encourage children to read over the summer
and to increase access to books
school district and community partner integration of early
literacy skill development within high-quality summer programs of all types
cross-sector coordination to ensure access to summer meals, physical
activities, and health and nutrition information in a variety of settings
too many children lose groundover the summer months, returning to school in the fall further behind than when they left in June. Children in low-income families lack access to enriching summer learning experiences, have few if any books in the home and face increased food insecurity without school meals.
research confirms:
Many low-income children lose 2-3 months of reading skills each summer.
Summer learning losses are cumulative; by the end of fifth grade, many low-income children are nearly three grade levels behind their higher-income peers.
Two-thirds of the ninth-grade reading achievement gap can be attributed to summer learning loss during elementary school.
Only 18% of children from low-income families participate in summer learning programs. Less than one-third participate in any organized summer program or activity.
Nationally, only 15% of children who receive free or reduced price meals during the school year have access to those meals during the summer.
CAMPAIGN MOBILIZATIONTHE CHALLENGE
GLR Summer Learning Display_r6.indd 1 6/3/14 2:33 PM
The Campaign for GRADE-LEVELREADING
HEALTHYREADERS
illustrative programs in GLR communities
School Readiness
www.healthybabies
baltimore.com
www.centeringhealthcare.org
www.columbuskids.org
http://helpmegrownational.org
www.greenandhealth
homes.org
www.attendance
works.org/what-works/baltimore/
http://visiontolearn.org
http://dsmhealth.org/smile-squad
www.healthykidshealthy
future.org
http://bit.ly/1kpWiLs
www.believe2become.org
www.horizonsnational.org
STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS
Community-wide policies, programs, services and outreach to address the health determinants
of early school success will combine to ensure:
access to high-quality prenatal care, adequate nutrition and home
visiting programs for low-income mothers at high risk for poor birth outcomes
universal comprehensive health and developmental screening, follow-up, intervention and support
public-private partnerships to provide low-income children with vision,
hearing and oral health care services
“healthy homes” programs to help families identify, manage and remediate
environmental hazards to reduce childhood injury and illness
summer nutrition programs that reach more children and serve as
community anchors for literacy enhancement and physical fitness activities
if more was done to address the health determinants of early school success, then more low-income children would be ready for school, have higher attendance rates and sustain learning gains during the summer months — all contributing to more low-income children reading at grade level by the end of third grade.
research confirms that healthissues have a direct connection to impaired early academic success, including reading proficiency:
birth outcomes contribute to developmental de-lays and learning disabilities.
including eyeglasses, means persistent vision and hearing problems that interfere with learning often go uncorrected among low-income children.
treatment for dental caries contributes to chronic absence.
and neighborhoods cause lead poisoning and exacerbate asthma and other illnesses that contribute to developmental delays, learning disabilities and chronic absence.
summer can compromise the academic gains
and lead to weight gain.