A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Early Childhood Development and the America Reads Challenge

Editor's Note: This double issue is committed to the subject of emergent literacy and efforts to assist children's early reading.

Carol Hampton Rasco
U.S. Department of Education
Director, America Reads Challenge

Earlier this year, President Clinton announced his proposal for the America Reads Challenge, an initiative to ensure that every child reads well and independently by the end of third grade. In its simplest terms, the America Reads Challenge is exactly what its name implies -- a challenge that asks all citizens to identify what role they can play-professionally and personally-to help create communities of strong readers.

As Early Childhood Specialists, you understand how important it is to provide children with solid language and listening skills as the means to future success in reading. Your expertise and close working relationship with families and caregivers provides you with opportunities to make a significant contribution toward preparing young children for reading readiness in their earliest education setting. The America Reads Challenge recognizes this valuable contribution and is designed to support your professional efforts by providing the potential for expanded programs and services.

Why We Need the America Reads Challenge

The America Reads Challenge recognizes that 40 percent of America?s fourth-graders cannot read at the basic level on challenging national reading assessments. Research shows that if students can?t read well by the third grade, their chances for later success are significantly diminished, including a greater likelihood of dropping out, fewer job options, and increased delinquent behaviors.

Study after study finds that early interaction with children to help them acquire language skills can be a determining factor for future reading success. As children get older, studies show that sustained individualized attention and tutoring after school and over the summer, when combined with parental involvement and quality school instruction, can raise reading levels. Research also shows that parents and other concerned individuals in local communities and the private sector can make a valuable contribution by serving as tutors and mentors. The America Reads Challenge builds on the groundwork laid by early childhood educators, classroom teachers, librarians, and reading specialists by drawing upon the invigorating spirit of community volunteers to complement existing reading programs.

How America Reads Works

America Reads asks schools and communities to examine where their students are with regard to success in reading and where they want them to be. Based on these joint findings, stakeholders can determine what types of programs are appropriate for the students in their communities and then develop appropriate models to move children to the levels of expectation. Overall, the America Reads Challenge will build on, expand, and initiate thousands of local efforts to improve reading. It also will build upon nationwide efforts such as:

• Read*Write*Now!: The Department of Education designed this summer program in 1994 with 50 reading and literacy groups to help fight the "summer reading drop off." The program encourages children to read 30 minutes a day at least once or twice a week with an older reading partner, get a library card and use it, and learn a new vocabulary word each day. The key to this program's success is its linking of teens and adults with young learners, a component often lacking in other reading programs.

• Corporation for National Service: National service grant programs that engage volunteer tutors in literacy efforts are working in hundreds of communities nationwide. This focus will continue to increase as all branches of national service--AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America, and the Senior Corps--make childhood literacy a higher priority in their grant process.

• Federal Work Study (FWS): Colleges and universities throughout the nation received a 35 percent increase in Federal Work-Study funding in July of 1997. President Clinton has challenged all colleges and universities to pledge a substantial portion of their FWS increase for tutoring pre-school through elementary school children in reading. In exchange, Education Secretary Richard Riley will waive the requirement for these colleges to match 25 percent of the funds for FWS students who serve as reading tutors. Nearly 600 colleges and universities have already signed on to the Challenge to date.

These and many other resources are already available in communities nationwide. The America Reads Challenge will help expand these programs and draw greater attention to the ways that communities can access them to improve the reading levels of their young people.

America Reads Legislation and Proposed Funding

• America Reads Challenge Legislation: The Administration is proposing legislation that will launch the first nationwide effort to supplement classroom instruction in reading with high-quality volunteer tutoring, primarily after school and during summers. If enacted, the proposal would fund the start-up or expansion of community partnerships among schools, libraries, community organizations, businesses, youth-serving groups, and local literacy projects, among others, working to help children with reading.

• Parents as First Teachers Grants: The legislation would create Parents as First Teachers grants to support efforts that help parents who want to be active partners with their children as they make the transition into school, and throughout their experience with education..

Additional Focus on Early Childhood Development

The America Reads Challenge seeks to reinforce the importance of skill-building activities for children beginning at birth, and of programs that encourage and support parent involvement in these activities. A number of existing federal resources and programs already delivering services to families with young children or involved in parent education and skills training can be strengthened in order to better educate and assist families with early childhood development and early literacy skills. For example, one million 3- and 4-year olds will be reached through the expansion of Head Start programs, already a part of President Clinton's balanced budget. Additional investments are included in President Clinton's balanced budget plan to strengthen family literacy efforts by expanding the Even Start Program.

For more information on the America Reads Challenge or to receive related publications, please call 1-800-USA-LEARN, or visit the America Reads Challenge home page on the Internet at http://www.ed.gov/inits/americareads.

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