We Are Here

All-America City Awards

Community Self-Assessment

Campaign Launch

Progress on Milestones 100%� in Third-Grade Reading in 12+ States

All-America City/State Awards

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STARTING 2015

PLANNING & MOBILIZATION EXECUTE & REFINE STRATEGIES ESTABLISH PROOF POINTS SCALING SUCCESS

2010 2012 2014 2016 MID 2018 – 2020

G R A D EL E V E LREADING

INVESTOR PROSPECTUS

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ACHIEVING THE GOAL

To succeed, we need three critical assurances:

quality teaching for every child in every

setting every day

seamless systems of care, services and

supports during the early years

community solutions to the challenges

faced by the children least likely to succeed:

those who are not ready for kindergarten;

who are missing too many days of school;

and who lose reading skills during the

summer

Seeking to build momentum and scale, the GLR

Campaign focuses on school readiness, attendance

and summer learning — challenges that are con-

sequential, understood and amenable to action.

PROGRESS MILESTONES

The milestones that will indicate the Campaign is

on track toward the 2020 goal and beyond are:

> Improving third-grade reading profi -

ciency, school readiness, attendance/

chronic absence and summer learn-

ing for children from low-income

families will have emerged as priori-

ties for public offi cials and infl uential

constituencies across the nation.

> Investing in early learning, healthy

on-track development and success-

ful parents will be more widely rec-

ognized as essential contributors to

success in the early grades.

> Communities in the Grade-Level Reading Network will serve

as proof points for improving school readiness, attendance/

chronic absence, summer learning and reading profi ciency

in the early grades.

BY 2015

BY 2016

The work had been underway for years, but it was

a 2010 report that started the Campaign. The

Annie E. Casey Foundation published a special

report entitled, Early Warning: Why Reading by

the End of Third Grade Matters. It dissected dozens of studies to

reveal the alarming future facing children from low-income families

who do not learn to read profi ciently by the end of third grade —

they are four times more likely to drop out of high school.

Launched in May 2010, the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is

a collaborative effort by foundations, nonprofi t partners, business

leaders, government agencies, states and communities to ensure

that more children in low-income families succeed in school and

graduate prepared for college, a career and active citizenship.

The Campaign provides an especially unique opportunity for

philanthropy to have a sustainable impact on the lives of children,

grounded in evidence-based practices. Supporting foundations

have stepped up to invest their funds, knowledge and experience;

advance key initiatives; align their grant making to invest in what

works; and use their networks to amplify the message.

To build momentum and demonstrate results, the 160+ GLR Cam-

paign communities are focusing their efforts on three community

solutions determined through research to be effective: school

readiness, school attendance and summer learning. If kids are

prepared to start school, attend school regularly and keep learning

during the summer, they are on a more certain path toward third-

grade reading profi ciency. When combined with strong, successful

parent support and on-track healthy development, the net effect

is game-changing for children from low-income families — their

educational achievement and long-term success.

The Campaign has set an ambitious 2020 goal of establishing

momentum at the local level that is sustainable long into the future,

fi rmly anchored in the ongoing work of local partners and sup-

ported by local philanthropy. Mobilized, results-focused communi-

ties can close the reading gap between low-income kids and their

more affl uent peers. America is depending on it.

ANSWERING THE CALL

The Campaign for GRADE-LEVELREADING

BY 2020, IN A DOZEN STATES

OR MORE, WE WILL INCREASE

the number of low-income

children reading proficiently

by the end of third grade.

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100%BY AT LEAST

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MORE THAN 200 COMMUNITIES IN 42 STATES ACROSS THE NATION, AS WELL AS THE

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, PUERTO RICO AND THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS WITH 2,100

LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS AND 250+ LOCAL FUNDERS, INCLUDING 130 UNITED WAYS

AK

HI

55DC

New Britain is one of Connecticut’s poorest school districts, but it’s

demonstrating that chronic absenteeism can be curbed.

The district is using data to identify chronically absent students

in its elementary schools. Principals are required to develop plans

promoting good attendance and outreach workers now connect

with the families of frequently absent kindergartners.

Between 2012 and 2013, the percentage of chronically absent

students plummeted in the 10 elementary schools: from 30 to 18

percent for kindergartners; from 24 to 13 percent for fi rst graders;

from 19 to 14 percent for second graders; and from 15 to 11 percent

for third graders. Kindergarten reading assessments now show

more children reading at or above goal.

ATTENDANCE

NETWORK IN ACTION

The research is pretty clear about what happens

to low-income kids if they don’t keep reading

when school lets out — the “summer slide” pushes

them further back each year, exacerbating the

achievement gap with their more affl uent peers.

In Sarasota, Florida, thanks to the support of the

Community Foundation of Sarasota County and a

Campaign for Grade-Level Reading coalition, the

summer slide is being arrested … with impressive

results.

One elementary school saw the proportion of

third graders passing the state reading test climb

from 52 to 72 percent after a full-day, seven-week

summer learning program. A summer-long pro-

gram offered by the Boys & Girls Clubs stopped

the summer slide for all 60 of its students, with

many posting substantial gains in reading scores.

And an early learning summer program for pre-

schoolers who weren’t ready for kindergarten

prepared nearly all of its students to enter school

in the fall.

SUMMER LEARNING

NETWORK IN ACTION

NETWORK IN ACTION

To arrive in kindergarten ready to learn, young

children need basic self-regulation and social skills

— how to sit still, how to share — in addition to

literacy skills. Thanks to some pioneering work

by the Oregon Social Learning Center, children in

Eugene are getting the head start they need.

The Center created the Kids In Transition to

School (KITS) program in 2002. With help from

the United Way of Lane County, which leads the

grade-level reading campaign, KITS was expanded

in 2010 and now serves almost 400 children.

Children moving through KITS show gains in early

literacy during the summer, greater self-regulation

skills and less aggressive classroom behavior and

enjoy greater parental involvement.

SCHOOL READINESS

Six core assets that drive the Campaign’s success:

1 An enabling narrative with realistic goals

2 A “big tent” strategy that welcomes all

3 Local coalitions with a broad base

4 A stable, dedicated management team

5 United Ways and other local funders

6 15 Enterprise “backbone” investors

CO-INVESTING IN A COMMON RESULT

Anchor Investor:The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Co-Investors:AnonymousBezos Family FoundationBuffett Early Childhood Fund Carnegie Corporation of New York David & Laura Merage FoundationDollar General Literacy FoundationFord FoundationInstitute of Museum and Library ServicesIrving Harris FoundationJ.F Maddox Foundation JPMorgan Chase FoundationKnowledge UniverseMargaret A. Cargill FoundationOpen Society FoundationsPritzker Children’s InitiativeRobert Wood Johnson FoundationTargetThe David & Lucile Packard FoundationThe Patterson FoundationThe Piton FoundationThe Skillman FoundationTremaine FoundationUPSWells Fargo

Sponsors:Alliance for Early SuccessFrantz Alphonse/A.P. Capital PartnersGeorge Kaiser Family FoundationIrene E. & George A. Davis Foundation Kenneth Rainin Foundation ScholasticWinthrop Rockefeller Foundation

CAMPAIGN ASSETS

NETWORK IN ACTION

STUDENTS WHO DON’T READ AT

GRADE LEVEL BY 3RD GRADE ARE

4 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO DROP OUT draf

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AUG 2015

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READINESS + ATTENDANCE

+ SUMMER

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A R E N T I N G + HE

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PARENTING

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