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State and Local Initiatives

The following resources have information about initiatives in States and localities to support emergent literacy.

Alabama
Literacy in Alabama (2001), a product of the Alabama Head Start State Collaboration Office, lists needs and resources to encourage literacy that were identified by a coalition organized by the Central Alabama Literacy Council. The document includes information on the "Literacy in Head Start State Survey" and other resources. For additional information, contact the Alabama Head Start State Collaboration Office at 334-223-0502.

California
Child Care Literacy Project is a collaborative pilot program run by Connections For Children (CFC) that offers training to help child care providers strengthen their understanding of children's early language and literacy development and to help them boost kindergarten readiness. CFC is the non-profit child care resource and referral agency serving child care providers, educators, and parents in the West Los Angeles and South Bay communities. Additional information is available at 310-452-3325 or on the Web at http://www.cfc-ca.org.

California Early Literacy Learning (CELL) and Extended Literacy Learning (ExLL) were developed in 1994 by the Foundation for California Early Literacy Learning … CELL (PreK-3) and ExLL (3-6) organize research-based teaching methods into a framework for classroom instruction. The framework covers oral language, phonological skills, reading aloud, shared reading, guided reading, independent reading, interactive writing, independent writing, and oral presentation. Additional information is available on the Web at http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/catalog/ModelDetails.asp?modelID=38

Colorado
Building Blocks to Colorado's Content Standards (August 2003), produced by the Colorado Department of Education, was developed to connect early childhood education to the K-12 Content Standards, to give information that can lead to effective early childhood advocacy in the community as a whole, and to provide specific examples. It describes skills appropriate for preschool learners, gives examples of interactions and experiences necessary for young children in acquiring the Building Blocks, and provides a description of an activity in which the children are engaged. This resource is available on the Web at http://www.cde.state.co.us/earlychildhoodconnections/early.htm.

Maine
The Maine Department of Education's Center for Inquiry on Literacy serves as a support for professional investigation into the field of literacy. The Center for Inquiry on Literacy seeks to provide collaborative support to schools exploring literacy issues, opportunities for sustained and reflective examinations of literacy practices, a resource center for research-based literacy practices, professional development opportunities related to literacy, and input into literacy policies and reform initiatives.

Examples of Statewide literacy initiatives sponsored by the Maine Department of Education include:

The Task Force on Early Care and Education, in existence since 1997, has researched and recommended legislation relating to strategies that support parents as children's first teachers. Examples of the task force's work to date include monitoring development of home visiting services for parents with children from 0-5 years of age and of parenting education courses in public school curricula, review of early childhood education and parent support programs in other States, and investigation of funding sources.

Statewide literacy initiatives outside the Department of Education include:

The Born to Read program strives to reach out to Maine families with the pleasure, wonder, and wisdom found in good books. Program goals are to give quality children's books to families and model families and model family literacy activities, to partner with service providers working with families to ensure those in greatest need are reached, and to inform and train service providers and families at Born to Read workshops.

Prescription to Read is a family literacy program designed to enlist health care providers in the effort to promote reading to families of young children. Physicians write prescriptions for parents and/or caregivers to read to their children and provide books at children's checkups.

Raising Readers, a family literacy program for parents of children ages birth to 5, is a new program of MaineHealth and Eastern Maine Health, nonprofit integrated healthcare delivery systems that serve the Maine population. The chief goal of Raising Readers is to promote family literacy through greater access to quality children's literature in the home and regular reading by parents to their children. The program will provide a dozen free books to every Maine child between the ages of birth and age 5 who participates as part of their regularly scheduled well child visits.

Read to Me, sponsored by Verizon with support from Maine's First Lady, the Maine Department of Education, the Family Literacy Task Force, the Maine Writer's and Publisher's Alliance, and Maine Public Broadcasting, provides every child entering kindergarten in Maine a book bag containing two books and information encouraging parents' efforts towards reading to their children and supporting children's literacy development.

Ready to Learn is Maine Public Broadcasting's (MPBN) response to the Goals 2000 campaign to ensure that all children enter school ready to learn. Building on its broadcasts of educational television programming for children, MPBN provides resources such as Web sites, newsletters, and professional development opportunities to educators, parents, and children designed to connect instructional content from programming to support concepts across children's domains of development. In addition, through its First Book campaign, MPBN distributes 200 children's books a month to needy Maine children.

Additional information is available on the Web at http://www.state.me.us/education/cil/cil.htm.

Massachusetts
Securing Our Future: Planning What We Want for Our Youngest Children. Future Trends Report, Volume VI (2001), by the Massachusetts Department of Education, has the following information about State efforts to improve early literacy:

Massachusetts Office for Child Care Services has developed and committed $25 million (in FY 01) to a tiered reimbursement system that is designed to improve child care curriculum, particularly in the area of literacy. In addition, there are three other options that allow providers to increase their reimbursement rates. The overall purpose is to support staff development in an area that is hoped to have a direct impact on children's learning and to allow career ladders and salary enhancements to be put in place to help retain qualified staff (page 68).

This resource is available on the Web at http://www.doe.mass.edu/mailings/2001/320/future.pdf.

Ohio
Ohio Family Literacy Statewide Initiative Reflecting on Essential Elements for Comprehensive Family Literacy: A Workbook (August 24, 2000), by the Ohio Department of Education, offers 1) a process for educators and service providers for forming successful collaborations related to family literacy, 2) questions for examining key elements of effective, four-component family literacy programs, and 3) a form for development of action plans no matter the stage of collaboration formation or program development. This resource is available on the Web at http://www.ode.state.oh.us/ece/superintendent/programs/family_literacy/Reflections.pdf.

Oklahoma
Early Steps to Literacy is a college-level course that is approved by the University of Oklahoma for Head Start/child care directors and teachers. It is a comprehensive research-based approach consisting of three components. Component I: "Professional Development for Early Childhood Educators" provides college-level instruction on emergent literacy for early childhood educators and professional preparation for administrators on supporting teachers in new literacy practices in early childhood settings. Component II: "Support Network and Peer Coaching for Educators Focused on Promoting Children's Language and Literacy Development" creates a support network to facilitate and sustain teachers as they work to change and improve their literacy practices. Component III: "Training and Support for an Early Literacy Infrastructure" creates bridges between child care, Head Start, and public school communities, and supports and extends the existing early childhood education infrastructure. For additional information, contact Ruth Ann Ball, project director, The University of Oklahoma, Center for Early Childhood Professional Development (CECPD), 1901 N. Moore Avenue, Moore, OK 73160-3667.

Multnomah County, Oregon
Early Words is a collaborative initiative designed to emphasize the everyday things parents and caregivers can do to enhance literacy and language development for children from birth through age 5. The Early Words initiative was begun by the Commission on Children, Families & Community of Multnomah County in collaboration with the Oregon Center for Career Development in Childhood Care and Education, the Multnomah County Library, Mt. Hood Community College, the Oregon Child Development Coalition, and child development experts. The library now leads the Early Words initiative with these partners and others. Their collective vision is that by kindergarten, all children will have the language and literacy skills they need to succeed in school and beyond. Early Words is designed to highlight the importance of early language and literacy development, promote relationships between adults and children through activities that foster language and literacy development, and provide parents and caregivers tips on how to incorporate reading and talking with babies and young children into their daily life.
They train and mentor child care providers, parents and educators. They reach out to the community by sponsoring a public communications campaign, and hosting special events such as Early Words Day at the Zoo, which features storytime, book handouts and more. Early Words also provides new parent gifts, which include an informational video, children's books and more to all first-time parents in Multnomah County. They also encourage pediatricians to "prescribe" reading to all parents of young children through the Reach Out and Read program. For additional information, contact Multnomah County Library at 503-988-5458 or on the Web at http://www.earlywords.net/about.html or http://www.multcolib.org/about/mcl-ecr.html.

Texas
Reach Out & Read Texas (ROR-TX) began in October 1999 as the Statewide initiative to expand ROR to every pediatric clinic in Texas. The mission of ROR TX is to improve early literacy skills in children in Texas by making early literacy a standard part of pediatric primary health care. Beginning with 25 ROR clinics, the program has more than tripled to include over 100 pediatric clinics, community health centers, children's hospitals, and residency training programs in Texas.

ROR targets children ages 6 months to 5 years. The ROR model consists of these components: physicians discuss literacy milestones with parents and give a prescription for daily reading; each child receives a new developmentally and culturally appropriate book; and volunteers model reading aloud in clinical waiting rooms. In addition, parents with limited reading skills are referred to adult and family literacy programs. For additional information, contact Susan M. Cooley, Ph.D. at 713-500-3836 or on the Web at http://reachoutandread.org/cgi-bin/tx.pl.

Publications and Resources with Multi-State Information

* Developing and Supporting Literacy-Rich Environments for Children (February 26, 2001), by the National Governors Association (NGA), Center for Best Practices, identified the following strategies that some States are using to support literacy-rich environments:

Connecticut's 1999 Act Concerning School Readiness and Child Day Care allows its department of education to administer grants to high-need school districts and programs to provide school readiness services, including preliteracy and literacy activities, to three-, four-, and five-year-olds.

In addition, this legislation called on the nonprofit organization, Connecticut Charts-A-Course, to implement the State's career development plan for early education and school-age care providers. Charts-A-Course provides quality training and career support to professionals teaching young children. The legislation also requires each local and regional board of education to develop and implement a three-year plan to improve the reading skills of students in kindergarten through grade three. In-service training programs must provide information on teaching language arts, reading, and reading readiness to teachers of students in kindergarten through grade three.

Finally, the legislation requires that continuing education completed by early childhood through grade three teachers include at least 15 hours of training in the teaching of reading and reading readiness and the assessment of reading performance (page 4).

Delaware First Lady Martha S. Carper launched the Delaware Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) initiative in 1998 to stimulate family literacy by bringing literacy services and free books to young children and their families. The preschool program provides reading readiness activities for the home, read-aloud strategies for parents and caregivers, and children's books to take home. Mrs. Carper also co-chaired the Delaware Commission for Reading Success, which produced a comprehensive report for addressing the State's literacy needs. Two other State-supported early childhood programs are the Early Childhood Assistance Program and the Parents as Teachers program for first-born children at-risk for later learning challenges (pp. 4-5).

With strong involvement from First Lady Mary Herman, Maine is pursuing a wide range of creative strategies and partnerships focused on early and family literacy, building on a long history of success on standardized tests of early literacy performance. A new report from the Maine Department of Education on early literacy education, A Solid Foundation, together with the Department's newly established Center of Inquiry on Early Literacy, is catalyzing conversations and professional development for teachers and parents, as well as follow-up research. Maine is leveraging available federal grants including Title 1 and a Reading Excellence Act grant for ongoing professional development in early literacy and establishment of family literacy programs. Maine is also using creative private-sector partnerships to reach young children and parents with books and support in early reading. The Read With Me program, sponsored by the Verizon Foundation, provides books and reading support materials to nearly all kindergarten students and their families across Maine when they enter school in September; the Raising Readers program supported by Maine's Libra Foundation will distribute a dozen books to each child born in Maine, based on a "prescription to read" approach that gives each newborn two books at birth with additional books at each pediatric checkup through age five (page 5).

Michigan Governor John Engler first outlined READY (Read, Educate, and Develop Youth), a parent information effort on the importance of reading and early learning, in his 1998 state-of-the-State address. READY seeks to strengthen parent involvement in the early childhood years so children develop the language and prereading skills they need to enter school ready to read and succeed. A READY kit containing written, audio, and visual information and materials was developed, and the Governor formally unveiled the kit in August 1998. Three levels of READY kits in Spanish and English have been created for parents of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Since the inception in 1998, more than 300,000 READY kits have been distributed to parents through a network of READY county coordinators comprised of early childhood education programs, human service coordinating bodies, hospitals, agricultural extension offices, and intermediate school districts. Funding has been appropriated to permit the distribution of an additional 350,000 READY kits in 2000 (page 5).

Missouri's Parents as Teachers (PAT) program is a home-school-community partnership supporting parents in their role as first teachers. The Early Childhood Development Act that established PAT provides funds to public school districts to implement developmental screenings and parent education services. Children are screened in the areas of language, motor, health and physical development, and sensory functioning. Parent education services are delivered through small group meetings with parents of similarly aged children and personalized private visits. PAT programs collaborate with Federal and State agencies and programs, including Head Start, Even Start, Title I, First Steps, Missouri Caring Communities, county health departments, and the Missouri Division of Family Services (page 5).

North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt Jr. launched Smart Start, an early childhood initiative, in 1993 to address the concern that many children arrive at school unprepared for school success. Smart Start uses early childhood education to enhance the literacy skills of young children before they enter kindergarten. The family literacy programs of Smart Start help family members learn to read and encourage them to read to their young children. Smart Start's success is based on local control, community planning and collaboration, and a comprehensive approach to reach all children. In its 1999-2000 budget, the legislature funded Smart Start at $220 million. State statute requires a 10 percent match from the private sector each year, and the initiative has garnered more than $50 million in private funds and contributions since it began (pp. 5-6).

Ohio's Ready to Learn initiative seeks to help parents and home caregivers expose children to an expanded set of learning opportunities by producing public service announcements and conducting workshops for adults who care for children in their homes. One of the four workshops, "Help Me Learn," uses brain development research to teach parents and caregivers about how children learn. The U.S. Department of Education funds Ready to Learn with an annual allocation of $7 million. Ohio added $1.3 million from the Child Care and Development Fund to produce the public service announcements and to design and implement the workshops (page 6).

South Carolina's Office of Family Independence in the department of social services and the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) initiated a pilot project in 1996 to combine Head Start activities with family literacy and employment services for parents. The project's goal was to develop a more comprehensive approach to assisting welfare families by promoting parent and child literacy. In fiscal 1998-99, South Carolina used funding from three sources to pilot this initiative. The State allocated $36,000 in TANF block grant funds to provide parents with employment and life-skills training at Head Start centers ($6,000 per site); $90,000 from the U.S. Department of Education's Rural Initiative Grant ($15,000 per site); and $300,000 over three years from the Federal Head Start Bureau to the NCFL for training and technical assistance (page 6).

In his 1999-2001 biennial budget, Wisconsin Governor Tommy G. Thompson earmarked $10.5 million from the Federal Child Care Development Fund to create 18 innovative, state-of-the-art Early Childhood Excellence Centers for low-income children age birth to five. Each center provides innovative, high-quality programs that enhance children's physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and language development. These centers also provide parent education services and deliver training to child care providers. All programs provide an environment that is rich in visual, auditory, tactile, and other sensory experiences that are guided by research on the development of the brain and are provided through positive interactions with consistent caregivers. These centers strive to ensure that children under the age of five, primarily from low-income families, reach their full potential (page 6).

This resource is available on the Web at http://www.nga.org/cda/files/IB022401LITERACY.pdf.

*Starting Early, Starting Now (2001), by the Education Commission of the States (ECS), provides an overview of the most compelling issues and questions that policy-makers face on the subject of early care and education. It gives the following examples of early literacy initiatives:

The Kentucky Early Literacy Initiative is aimed at ensuring that all children are able to score at the proficient level on State reading tests at the end of 4th grade. The initiative encourages early care and education programs to promote early literacy and provides professional development to help preschool and primary teachers master effective research-based reading strategies (page 18).

In Illinois, the P-16 Partnership for Educational Excellence brings together the governing bodies of the State's K-12 school system, community colleges and four-year colleges and universities. Among other things, the partnership has developed a comprehensive birth-to-8 approach to early childhood education that includes early literacy standards, program delivery standards and model sites, where both children and their parents can participate in quality education programs (page 18).

This resource is available on the Web at http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/28/33/2833.pdf.

*Topics in Early Reading Coherence: Reading Across the Region (2000), by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL), describes efforts by State departments of education and State legislators in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas to strengthen reading programs, raise student reading achievement, and help struggling readers. In describing initiatives to support early literacy, it states:

As SEDLetter went to press, the New Mexico State Board of Education favors a combination bill for early childhood education and early literacy that could provide as much as $15 million for early literacy programs that would affect preschoolers and students in K-2. The money would be distributed to all 89 school districts in New Mexico, taking into account the district's literacy rate and the at-risk population served by each district. The legislation has a parent involvement component and provides for teacher training and before and after school literacy programs. It would also give districts the option of expanding kindergarten programs from a half day to a full day.

New Mexico has the Even Start Family Literacy Program in place. Nine school districts currently receive funding for the program at 18 sites. This program is carried out in collaboration with area community colleges and serves young children and their parents. Parents are able to improve their own literacy skills and learn how to work with their children in literacy-rich activities from infancy (page 3).

This resource is available on the Web at http://www.sedl.org/reading/topics/initiatives.html#ar.

*ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication (REC) Literacy Education Resources: Early Childhood to High School is a Web site with information on reading initiatives in the following States: Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Texas. This resource is available on the Web at http://reading.indiana.edu/www/indexwr.html

*The Literacy Project at SERVE is a Web page organized by SERVE, an education organization with the mission to promote and support the continuous improvement of educational opportunities for all learners in the Southeast. The Web site has the following information about regional efforts to support early literacy:

Begin with Books
SERVE will implement Begin with Books, an early literacy initiative designed to reach a target population of new parents living in rural areas of Georgia, through a partnership with Archbold Health Systems. The goal is to encourage new parents to read to their children, starting the day they take their infant home from the hospital. As part of this initiative, SERVE has developed a series of user-friendly pamphlets that provides parents with information on how they can support children's literacy development. These pamphlets, along with an outfit and tote bag imprinted with the Begin with Books logo and a developmentally appropriate book, will be disseminated to all parents who give birth in one of Archbold's four hospitals in a four-county region.

Stepping Stones to Literacy
SERVE is developing a Web-based distance education curriculum to provide parents and early childhood providers with research-based information and resources to help them develop early literacy skills in their children. The objective of the project is to improve these adults' knowledge of early literacy skills and increase the incidence of behaviors that support early literacy development. Information presented at each level will cover age ranges 0-2, 2-4, and 4-6. SERVE has already developed and piloted Level I, and will pilot Levels II and III during 2002. A Stepping Stones to Literacy Web site comprised of the three levels of training will be created in 2003. The three levels of training are:

  • Level I, for those with a basic interest in early childhood theory and practice;
  • Level II, for those who have some experience and background in early childhood; and
  • Level III, which provides a more in-depth, research-oriented approach to facilitating early literacy skills.

This resource is available on the Web at http://www.serve.org/litproject/.

The National Child Care Information Center does not endorse any organization, publication or resource.

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