Read about our success stories and Read On's History
Pacesetter Honors
The program is being honored for its work in 2019 that focused on helping achieve the city’s goal of ensuring that 72% of third graders read proficiently by 2030.
The Tempe Acceleration Zone team focused early literacy efforts on 395 families and their 758 children under age six in the highest poverty region of the city. The team saturated the community with literacy opportunities and family support to address kindergarten entry data showing that just 20% of children entering school were prepared in the domain of language and literacy.
Those efforts included distributing approximately 1,000 books to 200 children, holding six literacy programs at the Tempe Public Library, and providing nearly 60 Triple P parenting classes to more than 100 adults. This combination provided families with the critical tools needed to boost literacy development.
Research, Data, etc.
Research shows that proficiency in reading by the end of third grade enables students to shift from learning to read to reading to learn, and to master the more complex subject matter they encounter in the fourth grade curriculum. Most students who fail to reach this critical milestone falter in the later grades and often drop out before earning a high school diploma. Yet two-thirds of U.S. fourth graders are not proficient readers, according to national reading assessment data. This disturbing statistic is made even worse by the fact that more than four out of every five low-income students miss this critical milestone.
Although schools must be accountable for helping all children achieve, providing effective teaching for all children in every classroom every day, the Campaign is based on the belief that schools cannot succeed alone. Engaged communities mobilized to remove barriers, expand opportunities, and assist parents in fulfilling their roles and responsibilities to serve as full partners in the success of their children are needed to assure student success.
A Bright Spot Award was given to Tempe Experience Corps for their work in pairing trained senior volunteers with struggling readers to provide one-on-one reading tutoring so that students can reach critical reading benchmarks. Since the creation of the Experience Corps program in Tempe over 13 years ago, these dedicated retirees have given over 72,000 volunteer hours to ensure that over 3,500 Tempe children are reading proficiently by third grade.
Pacesetter Award:
A Pacesetter Award was given to Read On Tempe. This award highlights communities from around the country who report making measurable progress on key indicators of early school success. Read On Tempe is a collaborative effort who’s mission is to create a seamless array of services to support and educate families as their children move from infancy through the critical milestones along the read to academic and future success.
Council of Champions:
Tempe Elementary School District Superintendent Christine Busch was selected as a member of the Campaign for Grade Level Reading’s Council of Champions. This award honors exemplary individuals who support local and statewide efforts of early literacy success. Superintendent Busch has been a driving force behind improving literacy in Tempe. She has been committed to literacy instruction within the district as well as supporting city and community literacy efforts
