Hello from Raising a Reader,
This is an exciting time for our organization—our steady growth has brought Raising a Reader to many new places in more states across the US, new teammates, and pushed us in new innovative spaces.
We supported 290 Partnerships in 34 states and provided 2,010 hours of professional development support and training!
98% of our partners report increased knowledge in
Which leads to families improving their home learning routines.
90% of our partners report families increased
90% of our partners report children increased
At Raising a Reader we will continue to live into our mission of supporting families and inspiring the development of literacy skills and a lifelong love for reading to help children attain brighter futures in which they can thrive and contribute in school, the workforce and society.
Thank you for everything you do to make Raising a Reader a critical partner in creating brighter futures for all children by strengthening family bonds, and continuously striving to create a more equitable future for our children and our communities – regardless of race, culture, language, income or ability.
With appreciation.
Your friends at Raising a Reader
P.S. Don’t forget to follow, like, comment, and share!
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Dear GlobalGiving Community,
Thank you for helping Raising a Reader reach over 170,000 families across the nation in 2022! Together we are creating a world where all children have the family support and reading skills they need to thrive in school and beyond.
Don’t let the headlines get you down!
Despite recent reports of pandemic-related drops in reading and math scores
among students nationwide, the children 0-8 and their families who we support
at Raising a Reader are engaged and reading together longer and more often.
Family engagement is at the core of what we do. Our evidence-based
programs help caring adults set their children up for success by creating shared
reading routines, fostering social emotional learning, building healthy family
relationships, and learning skills needed to thrive in school and beyond.
Through easy-to-use, multilingual materials and multicultural stories, we meet
families where they are and make shared reading more engaging and
accessible for all children.
The research is clear: strong, engaged families make a major difference
to children’s educational and life outcomes. When families read together,
they share more than stories. Reading together strengthens bonds between
children and the caring adults in their lives. It becomes a consistent, shared
positive experience that improves communication and creates stronger
attachment. Shared reading benefits adults as well. Studies have found that
those who read with their children experience reduced parental stress and
more positive parenting behavior.
“Que este programa de los libros es un buen programa para el desarrollo mental de los niños y también nos ayuda a pasar más tiempo en familia.” (This book program is a good program for the mental development of children and also it helps us spend more time with family.)
~ Parent
THANK YOU for helping Raising a Reader improve the early literacy skills of children and families with the greatest need!
Links:
Dear Friends of Raising A Reader,
I have good news and I have bad news. I will start with the bad news...
This year, for the first time since the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests began tracking student achievement in the 1970s, children lost ground in math, and scores in reading fell by the largest margin in more than 30 years. Children from vulnerable backgrounds like those we serve, had the greatest declines.
Now more than ever, children and families need extra support like Raising A Reader provides to address pandemic related learning loss. Covid-19 continues to disrupt learning and teacher shortages are wide-spread. Children, caregivers, and educators report feeling burned out and stressed out.
We know that 90% of brain development occurs by age 5 and studies show that children who develop early literacy skills before starting school by reading books with caregivers, progress in school more easily and quickly.
Here's the good news…
Raising A Reader’s family engagement and early literacy programs offer proven, cost-effective, and easy-to-implement solutions. Thirty-nine independent program evaluations have shown that our programming provides statistically significant positive impacts on family home literacy environments and early reading skills. Bottom line, our programs help prepare children to become successful learners.
Raising A Reader is a national organization that partners with schools and community-based organizations across the country to prepare vulnerable young children to succeed in school and beyond. This past year, Oklahoma City Public School (OKCPS), expanded Raising A Reader from 3 to 34 schools. Now our program will be in place at every OKCPS school with Pre-K through 2nd grade.
“It’s just a really great program,” said Dr. Stephanie Hinton, Director of Early Childhood Education for OKCPS district.
“We’re creating routines and habits in the home that encourage lifelong learning. As educators, we’re always thinking about the ways that we can engage families in the academic process. With Raising a Reader, we’re going to be able to provide an ongoing connection around literacy development with the families. There is something very different and very unique about sitting down with a child and reading a story with them or to them. It nurtures that relationship and fosters a love of learning and of reading. We are raising future adults. The habits that we’re building through reading, through creating lifelong learners, to me, that will always be more valuable than a test score.”
Together, we can help children build home libraries and home reading routines that will set them up to succeed in school and beyond.
Thank you for your commitment to children’s education and for continuing to support Raising A Reader.
Sincerely,
Your friends at Raising A Reader
Links:
Raising A Reader Beats the Summer Slide.
Thanks to support like yours, we helped bring Raising A Reader to 150,000 children and families across 36 states during the school year. Our programs help young children prepare for kindergarten and become proficient readers by 3rd grade.
School is out and incidences of COVID-19 are once again on the rise. Children ages 0-5, like those we serve, are still not eligible for vaccination. Studies show that language development among infants and toddlers has been negatively impacted during the pandemic and that PreK and Kindergarten enrollment is also down. Now more than ever, children from low-income families like those we serve need fun, effective early learning opportunties over the summer.
To that end, Raising A Reader developed Super Summer Learning Adventures (SSLA) during the pandemic to activate summer learning, address pandemic related learning loss, and provide children with diverse high quality bilingual books they can keep. We include an interactive 6-week bilingual family guide with Common Core aligned daily strategies and activities to faciltate learning and a QR code to capture impact. All of our SSLA materials and resources are bilingual (English and Spanish). Studies show that when English Language Learners have the ability to read in their native language, dual language capacity improves.
We stand firm in our unwavering commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and improving the lives of children in all communities across the United States. It is our belief that strengthening families and early literacy can be a cornerstone in creating equity and opportunity for all.
We are so grateful for your support.
Your Friends at Raising A Reader
Links:
A Year in Review and a Look at 2022
Children are back at school in person and Raising A Reader (RAR) and generous donors like you helped get them there, ready for success.
Throughout the year, children and the caring adults in their lives read together in communities all across the United States. We are proud to have been part of building healthy brains, healthy relationships and home libraries.
The disparity gap continued to widen across the nation. RAR leaned in, listened and learned that educators, caregivers and children were really struggling. We responded with two new models: Super Summer Learning Adventures and Family Shared Reading Program. Both of these bilingual (English and Spanish) programs build home libraries, support learning recovery, and address the increased social emotional issues that are disproportionately impacting the over 150,000 vulnerable children and their families we now serve each year. That is a 20% increase since 2022!
Every day we continue to activate engagement, build knowledge, and create connections that support children in developing early language and literacy skills. We know that by building routines around book sharing, children are more prepared for kindergarten, are less likely to struggle academically, and achievement gaps resulting from systemic racial injustice will narrow.
This is the why behind our work.
Looking ahead, RAR is committed to a growth strategy that advances the field of early literacy by amplifying the voices and experiences of local families to inform early literacy strategies on a national scale.
We are also investing in new pilots, such as our Race Equity Pediatric Pilot, and developing new partnerships that will broaden our reach and address the critical issue of kindergarten readiness. And, we recently completed an audit of our extensive book collection with over 3,000 books and titles in 13 languages. We are committed to ensuring that our books reflect the lived and shared experiences of the children and familes that participate in Raising A Reader. Over 80% of our children and famlies are BIPOC and come from low-income backgrounds. Our books celebrate our children and families, encourage a love of reading, and foster future academic success. Your investment makes our work possible! THANK YOU!!!
Join with us as we continue to grow and build in communities all across the United States in 2022.
With much appreciation,
Your friends at Raising A Reader
Links:
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