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

Reading: Students should be able to read well and independently by the end of third grade.

Elementary school children read all summer long and beyond thanks to the Fox Cities Alliance for Education, an initiative of the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce and Industry located in Appleton, Wisconsin. Local employers have rallied around local schools to promote READ*WRITE*NOW!, a reading and writing program of the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education and the America Reads Challenge. Fox Cities employers and employees developed a plan for partners to read to students during the summer and into the school year. Employers also donate paper and supplies and reproduced the printed materials for the program at no cost. By working together as a consortium, the local businesses are able to make resources go further to help improve students' reading achievement. Thousands of reading kits have been distributed to students in the Fox Cities area since 1995. Evaluations of the effects of the program on children's reading have shown that not only did students not lose reading skills over the summer, as often happens with low-income children, but that almost 80 percent of student achievement scores increased as a result of the program. Parents also reported that they spent more time reading with their children and felt that the materials were helpful.

Benefits

• Business: Helps develop the reading skills young children need to be successful in school and careers

• School: Profits from a systemic partnership where reading is embedded in business practices and reinforced in the community as a priority

• Teacher: Begins the school year teaching new material, rather than reviewing the past year's material

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This page was last updated January 3, 2002 (jca)