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Funding collaborative to aid reading achievement in schools

Date: 11/28/2011

Nov. 28, 2011

By Katelyn Gendron

Assistant Managing Editor

SPRINGFIELD — A new funders collaborative at the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation is giving the organization an added boost toward reaching its goal of achieving 80 percent reading proficiency by fourth grade in Springfield Public Schools.

Sally Fuller, project director for Reading Success by 4th Grade at the Davis Foundation, called the collaborative a great milestone in achieving her organization’s goal of raising $1.5 million for the initiative.

School Superintendent Dr. Alan J. Ingram described the community-based program as a “comprehensive system that helps families become actively involved in their child’s education and ultimately improve learning.”

Only 36 percent of third grade students in Springfield Public Schools are reading proficient, according to the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System.

“This initiative represents the best of community partnerships,” Ingram said. “It’s rooted in data, aligned with the district’s priorities and is focused on successful and measurable outcomes. It strengthens what our teachers strive for every day in the classroom and involves the community and parents in doing so.”

Fuller explained that Reading Success by 4th Grade is part of a larger national initiative, the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, which is “a collaborative effort by dozens of funders across the nation to close the gap in reading achievement between students living in low-income households and those from higher-income households.”

“This isn’t just something we’re worried about, this is a national movement,” she said. “Parents are their children’s first teachers. We need to let parents know that they don’t have to be literate [to help them read]. The most important thing that you can give your child is words, vocabulary and language.”

The Davis Foundation already has a Reading for Springfield Blueprint (www.cherishspringfield.org/pages/read/blueprint), which outlines the goals and responsibilities of the community, the schools, parents and students.

The blueprint states, “The most important 20 minutes of your day is spent reading to a child.”

Fuller explained that the entire project, from inception to fund-raising to distribution of the $1.5 million would take about three years. The foundation has raised almost $1 million to date, she added.



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