The theme of May’s Partner Network Meeting: gratitude
On June 1st, we were delighted to reconnect with Read by 4th partners at our first in-person Partner Network Meeting since 2019. Below is an excerpt from Jenny Bogoni’s remarks reflecting on how much Read by 4th partners have accomplished in that time.
At its core, Read by 4th is grounded on the idea that we are stronger together. That there is power in numbers. That we need to listen to, learn from and work with one another to affect change. That protecting a child’s right to read will take ALL OF US. While we have found a way to maintain our partner network community throughout the pandemic, it is simply joyful to be in the presence of our co-authors once again.
Let’s reflect for a moment about everything that has happened in our world since Read by 4th began In between all of those headlines, grade level reading campaigns sprung up across the country, the science of reading was more broadly understood and embraced, locally, the School District and Mastery have made dramatic shifts in how reading is taught and how teachers are supported; playful learning became a championed strategy; and neighborhoods across Philadelphia have seen various forms of installations to catalyze early language and learning. And these are just a few of the changes we have seen in the last seven years.
Much hasn’t changed however. First and foremost our vision that all children in Philadelphia have a right to read. And we know now - more than we ever did - that changing Philadelphia’s early literacy story will take more than one author. That’s why you are all here…my fellow writers. And, we understand that our collective strategies need to address families, communities and systems.
When Read by 4th was started, the original partners were responding to a national call for communities to come together to address the early literacy crisis. This national campaign for grade level reading had done an analysis of why children weren’t hitting this critical benchmark of 3rd grade reading and realized that there were three levers on which communities could push: school readiness, school attendance and summer learning. Their theory was that schools were doing all they could and that schools would reach better outcomes if communities were set-up to buttress their efforts by ensuring students entered school ready to learn, were in their seats every day and on-time, and that they were connected to structured out-of-school and summer activities that reinforced learning.
In response to this call to action, Philadelphia came together with a collective approach to impact those areas. But we knew that schools could do more, that they WANTED to do more. We knew there was significant work to be done to strengthen the teacher pipeline and to improve how reading is taught in our classrooms. So we set about collectively addressing these needs - early school readiness, school attendance, summer and out-of-school time and teacher preparation and support.
We saw significant changes in those first few years - inside and outside of classrooms. Who here remembers our first major Book Nook initiative through the Martin Luther King Day of service? There was all the coaching work that the School District did in partnership with CLI to support a shift in teacher practice with how reading is taught. You can’t forget the outreach and advocacy that several of you helped make happen to begin to get more teacher prep programs accredited to the KPSTR. Did you know we are now the leading - LEADING - region in the country when it comes to these programs? More in PA than any other state! And, we can’t forget the other huge change… Reading Captains launched. This powerful network of literacy advocates is now 600 members strong.
These early advances showed the country that Philadelphia is an innovative, cutting edge leader when it comes to early literacy. We were ahead of the curve on the science of reading - Thank you SDP, Mastery, CLI, Temple, Drexel, St. Joe’s, Arcadia, AIM, and so many other partners. We envisioned a new form of early literacy volunteerism and community mobilization - I can’t say it enough…Yeah Reading Captains. And we flipped the language and tone of how we speak WITH families about what it takes to raise a reader - Yes, I am talking about the Reading Promises. Communities from across the country looked to your work as the examples they should emulate and replicate.
And then the pandemic hit. And tonight, I really want to talk about all that you have made possible just in those two years. It is really, truly, incredible. And I am here tonight to thank you and recognize that amazing work. This little thing called COVID didn’t get in your way at all. If anything, it energized you in new ways. And brought out even more creativity and innovation. Let’s talk about a few of the things that stand out as accomplishments in the past two years made possible by you - the Read by 4th partners (in no particular order):
A book mobile - Tree House Books
Ultimate Summer Learning Adventure - Lori Severino, Drexel school of Ed, AIM and others
Reading Promise Week
Mural Arts neighborhood murals
Vello - United Way
A volunteer portal - Global Citizen
More equitable book distribution - about 1 million books (thank you, Anne, Michael, Marni, Kirsten and so many more)
A road map for expanding tutoring - Reading Allowed, OCF,
As we speak - figuring out how to expand tutoring by building the workforce! Reading Allowed
Dramatic expansion of Reading Captains - now regions, leadership, trainings and more
Reading Champs Guides - play streets and the integration of summer of wonder /Playstreets and play captains - FLP and others
Transformed our parent trainings into virtual resources
Curated resources for teachers on how to teach reading virtually
Reading Promise Album by City Love
Laundromat work
Play everywhere grants
Playful Learning Playbook
Come Aboard the Reading Promise
I’m exhausted - and in awe - just reading this list. And I know I am missing things. Please know I didn’t mean to exclude any of your amazing work.
And most of you were doing all of this WHILE figuring out how to navigate the pandemic for your families and for your work. You were figuring out how to provide these resources and services while rethinking your core services. So many of you started giving out meals, connecting families to the internet, providing education pods, meeting needs that were much broader than early literacy and stretched you beyond your original missions and purposes. All because of your deep, unwavering commitment to your neighborhoods, your families, your children and your city. THANK YOU.
The world and the context in which we do our work is shifting again. It shifted in 2020 and it’s shifting now. And we are all going to be asked to continue to re-examine how we respond to the needs in front of us. We know the literacy crisis is still there. We know, in fact, that our youngest children - despite all the groundwork and resources put in place - are further behind in reading and writing than they were in 2020. There is so much work to be done. And not a second to waste in responding.
But the good news - I’ll even say great news - is that we are ready. We are knowledgeable. We have lessons learned. And most importantly, we have this incredible network of partners.
We are ready - We have an army of Reading Captains, we have schools (and teacher prep programs) that are embracing the science of reading, we have an out-of school time system that is prioritizing literacy outcomes, and community-based organizations that are finding amazing ways to transform their communities into learning landscapes, and a city government that is looking at how to embed playful learning more broadly across our city services and neighborhoods.
We are knowledgeable with so many lessons learned - we know what it takes to teach a child to be a proficient reader. We know the conditions (school ready, in school, in supportive OST and summer programs, teachers resourced and supported in science of reading), we know how the brain learns to read (the reading rope and the simple view of reading), we know the specific journey of skill development a child needs to traverse.
In those 0-3 years: Oral language skills, print awareness
When they are 4-5: alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness
Once they are in school: decoding, encoding, fluency
And across all of these age bands working on vocabulary and language comprehension
We are an incredible network of partners - more than 500 Reading Captains, more than 100 organizations, some 1000 individuals; all committed (deeply dedicated) to Protecting our children’s right to read.
So where do we go from here? How do we accelerate change? How do we leverage all that we have accomplished together? We focus. We focus on the things that we know matter most. We commit to a set of shared measures - things we will all work to change in our own way, doing what we can do from our positions in our communities. I’m talking about things like increasing letter recognition. Imagine for a moment if the full power of the Read by 4th network was leveraged just to change that one outcome. ……
We need to be this focused across the learning to read journey. We must find a handful of things we can do together; things that families, communities and systems can each attack in their own ways.
There is no time to waste. There is no room for us to be anything less than extremely focused and aligned.
But I’ll say it again. I am hopeful. I am confident. Together, we can build a city of readers. Collectively, we WILL protect our children’s right to read.