The National Civic League is adding its support to national efforts to address a persistent challenge in education: increasing the number of low-income children reading at grade level by the end of third grade.
Educators and researchers have long recognized the importance of mastering reading by the end of third grade, yet two-thirds of U.S. schoolchildren are not reaching that benchmark. And children who don’t read by the end of third grade and live in poverty are six times more likely to fail to graduate from high school.
In 2012, the All-America City Awards will focus on communities that work to develop strategies for locally-owned community solutions in the three areas that have real potential to drive improvements in grade-level reading: school readiness, attendance and summer learning.
On June, 15, 2011, NCL announced its partnership with the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, a national coalition of funders, business and community stakeholders. The Campaign’s goal is to increase by 50 percent the number of low-income children reading on grade level in 3rd grade in at least a dozen states during the next ten years.
We are asking communities to sign a letter of an intent demonstrating their willingness to participate in the 2012 All-America City Grade Level Reading Award program.
October 31 Webinar on the AAC-GLR process
Sample Letter of Intent (Be Patient. It takes a minute or two to load the document.)
Campaign for Grade Level Reading Backgrounder
Guidelines for Community-based Organizations
Guidelines for Business Leaders
Campaign for Grade Level Reading Video
Archived Webinar Presentation (PDF) on AAC 2012
For an invitation to apply for the 2012 award, click here.
For more information on the Campaign for Grade Level Reading, click here.
