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

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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

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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

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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.