INNOVATION BRIE

F The Campaign for GRADE-LEVELREADING

Partnering with

StriveTogether >Partnering with like-minded efforts is a key to accomplishing

the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading’s goal of increasing by

100 percent the number of U.S. children from low-income

families who read proficiently by the end of the third grade in

at least a dozen states by 2020.

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One important Campaign partner is the StriveTogether

Cradle to Career Network, whose 63 communities in

32 states and Washington, D.C., use a collective impact

process to help local organizations and agencies work

together, rather than in isolation, to improve educa-

tional outcomes, starting with kindergarten readiness

and early-grade reading, and culminating in completion

of a postsecondary degree.

In many of the 26 places where the Campaign and Strive-

Together overlap, communities are combining an inten-

sive focus on the result of improving grade-level reading

proficiency among low-income children and the use of a

well-defined process for achieving collective impact.

“Many of the Network’s partnerships have taken advan-

tage of what the Campaign offers to improve outcomes

in school readiness, school attendance and summer

learning — and ultimately, grade-level reading,” says

Jennifer Blatz, a StriveTogether senior director, noting

that all StriveTogether Network communities now track

grade-level reading outcomes and half have made grade-

level reading a top three priority.

“Grade-level reading is one of our six focus areas because

reading proficiency by the end of third grade is the most

important predictor of high school graduation and career

success. More than 80 percent of low-income children

miss this milestone so we are fortunate to partner with

the Campaign.”

Both efforts also have benefited from an ongoing part-

nership with Target, whose support has encouraged

and helped to strengthen the StriveTogether/Campaign

collaboration nationally and in shared communities as

part of the company’s five-year, $1 billion investment in

education by the end of 2015.

Because StriveTogether focuses on providing expertise

on process and methodology — in areas such as how

to build a partnership, use data to drive outcomes and

ensure long-term sustainability — the Network’s com-

munities look for partners offering content expertise.

“We encourage our partnerships to connect with the

Campaign’s network because it offers some of the most

proven and promising solutions to the challenges and

barriers to reaching reading proficiency, which is at the

front-end of StriveTogether’s cradle-to-career contin-

uum,” says Blatz.

At the same time, “GLR communities across the country

are finding value in incorporating StriveTogether’s tools

and support into their work,” says Ron Fairchild, direc-

tor of the Campaign’s Network Communities Support

Center (NCSC), which provides technical assistance to

232 local GLR initiatives in 42 states, plus the District

of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Many of the (Strive-Together) Network’s partnerships have taken advantage of what the Campaign offers.

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One way for GLR communities to best achieve lasting

results is to connect with broader community efforts that

offer organizational strength and know-how to support

GLR work long term, notes Fairchild.

“We see particular strength in Campaign communi-

ties that have blended, linked and braided together a

focus on the milestone of reading success by the end

of the third grade and StriveTogether’s cradle-to-career

focus, community partnerships and collective impact

approach,” he says.

Here is a look at three communities’ experience with the

GLR Campaign and StriveTogether Network. ºread on!

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Shortly after taking office in 2013, Portland Mayor

Michael Brennan launched Portland ConnectED, a

cradle-to-career initiative that includes a grade-level

reading focus. A year later, Portland joined the GLR

Campaign and the StriveTogether Network.

“We’d heard good things about both models and knew

we needed partners locally, regionally and nationally to

optimize our impact,” says Mike Dixon, executive direc-

tor of Portland ConnectED, which includes Starting

Strong, the GLR effort. “We credit a lot of our growth

to our involvement with both.”

Although Portland’s economy is booming, there are

troubling trends — growing poverty, especially among

African Americans, and a reading achievement gap

between poor students and their more affluent peers.

Sixty-three percent of all Portland students read profi-

ciently by the end of third grade. Only 40 percent of

those from minority and low-income families do so.

“The mayor and other partners immediately recognized

that education was going to be the key to sustaining

Portland’s civic and economic growth,” says Dixon.

Portland ConnectED’s 12 founding partners pledged by

2017 to increase third-grade reading proficiency from

63 to 85 percent, especially among minority and low-

income children; high school graduation from 79 to 91

percent; and postsecondary degree completion from 43

to 50 percent.

The Campaign helped galvanize the Portland initiative’s

many partners, starting in March 2013 with a presenta-

tion by Ron Fairchild at a forum attended by 120 people.

“That marked the birth of Starting Strong. Almost every

person who attended is still involved,” says Dixon. In fall

2013, Portland was chosen to host a gathering of New

England GLR communities, which “provided regional

partners to connect and learn with.”

Portland also has benefited from the Campaign’s “tar-

geted focus areas, suggested strategies and best practices

so we can get to work quickly and easily,” says Jennifer

Burns, Starting Strong project director.

This “practical, research-based strategic support,” adds

Dixon, “helps explain Starting Strong’s position at the

leading edge of our cradle-to-career work.” Portland’s

GLR work — such as expansion of summer learning

opportunities — has inspired Portland ConnectED to

provide similar opportunities for older children.

StriveTogether has helped Portland partners see “the big

picture” and construct an effective and enduring infra-

structure. “We’re using StriveTogether tools to make sure

we’re setting ourselves up to work together well over the

long term,” says Burns.

Learning from Two Efforts

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Early on, Portland ConnectED’s infrastructure was

altered to add a Starting Strong project director and

workgroups, which was deemed necessary to best pursue

many GLR strategies. But, adds Dixon, “There’s a lot of

complementary strategies and integration. We see our-

selves as completely intertwined.”

Having two intertwined efforts — each linked to a

nationwide network — can present challenges. The

Campaign and StriveTogether sometimes request dif-

ferent information. Starting Strong and Portland Con-

nectED sometimes move at different speeds. “We don’t

want the car to veer off the road because one wheel is

spinning much faster or slower,” says Dixon.

With Starting Strong housed at the United Way of

Greater Portland and other Portland ConnectED work

housed elsewhere, Portland partners have learned to com-

municate frequently and to carefully define, and redefine,

various partner’s roles to avoid confusion and “collabora-

tion fatigue.” The John T. Gorman Foundation, a pri-

mary funder and lead partner in both ConnectED and

Starting Strong, also recognizes that in order to improve

outcomes for Portland’s students, the two efforts must

be closely aligned. “We have supported project staff and

related infrastructure — essential components for the

success of any collaborative effort,” says Carter Friend,

senior program associate at the Foundation.

External communication also aims to clearly explain

Starting Strong and Portland ConnectED — the key

players and their connection to each other as well as to

the Campaign and StriveTogether.

Yet, overall, the payoff is worth the occasional challenge.

“The two have fed one another and almost always to

great benefit,” says Dixon. “Most important, the blend

has helped us extend our reach with added cohesion and

impact for more children, especially during the critical

early years.”

Sixty-three percent of all Portland students read proficiently by the end of third grade.

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Tacoma has used the StriveTogether Network’s collective

impact approach to involve community partners through-

out its cradle-to-career initiative, Graduate Tacoma —

starting with its grade-level reading component, which

includes early learning.

“Collective impact helps the community find its place at

the table,” says Eric Wilson, president/CEO of the Foun-

dation for Tacoma Schools, the backbone organization for

Graduate Tacoma, which aims to improve Tacoma’s high

school graduation and postsecondary completion rates by

50 percent by 2020.

“There is no more obvious place than those 0-to-5 years

— when the school district does not have primary respon-

sibility for the children — to introduce the community to

what it can do to support parents and help make sure our

kids are ready for kindergarten.”

Started in 2010, Graduate Tacoma joined StriveTo-

gether and the GLR Campaign soon after. GLR work is

addressed by two of Graduate Tacoma’s three action net-

works. “The cradle-to-career piece appealed to different

community folks who realize that we need to reach kids

where and when they need us, along that continuum,”

says Wilson.

“From the beginning, we recognize that it was critical to

include early learning and third-grade reading. There is

so much rich research showing that children fall further

and further behind if they’re not reading at grade level by

the end of third grade.”

StriveTogether and Campaign offerings have proved “very

complementary,” he adds. The Campaign provides “best

practices, aligned strategies and shared learning that go

deeper within early learning to third-grade reading” while

StriveTogether’s “structured commitment to cradle-to-

career and collective impact” helps community partners

build a shared vision, establish specific goals and agree on

common indicators to measure progress.

“One organization can’t do it alone. We have to be inten-

tional about our partnership and elevate each of our

strengths,” says Lindsay Morgan Tracy of United Way of

Pierce County, one of Graduate Tacoma’s more than 130

partners, which also include the Tacoma Public Schools.

“We talk about what’s working and not working. We use

data in a way that is not punitive but, more importantly,

provides learning to help children be kindergarten ready,

reading at third grade, graduating high school and there-

fore, more prepared for professional, academic and per-

sonal success.”

Before Graduate Tacoma, many community groups were

deeply committed to serving youth “but felt very iso-

lated,” says Wilson. “There was an enormous amount

tacomawashingtonEngaging the Community

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of duplication — tremendous intent but not necessarily

the impact. Now the community owns the work and has

rolled up its sleeves.”

The net effect is “real action,” he adds. “And people are

recognizing, through the data, that we are starting to

move the needle.”

In 2014, Tacoma’s high school graduation rate reached

a record 78 percent, from 55 percent in 2010, surpass-

ing the state average for the first time. For students from

low-income families, the rate rose to 71 percent, from 59

percent in 2012. The rate rose over the past three years

for all groups: 14 percent for black and Asian students,

9.5 percent for Hispanic students, 8 percent for white stu-

dents, 19 percent for Native American students and 17

percent for Pacific Islander students.

One of six communities selected in spring 2015 to receive

support from StriveTogether’s new Cradle to Career

Accelerator Fund, Tacoma plans to use the technical

assistance and peer learning to advance all of its work.

But when asked to choose a focus area, Tacoma picked

one firmly in the Campaign playbook — strengthening

kindergarten readiness, via strategies to increase parent

engagement, early developmental screening and quality

preschool access.

“We have come through the years of start-up and stumble

to where we believe this is a network and community

commitment that is really a movement,” says Wilson.

“The community is excited and galvanized to sustain this

work long term.”

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26 COMMUNITIES IN 21 STATES PLUS THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

BELONG TO STRIVETOGETHER AND THE GLR CAMPAIGN

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Broadening Earlier Work

Dayton’s well-established early childhood initiative,

ReadySetSoar, gained new focus, partners and momen-

tum after merging in 2011 with a new cradle-to-career

initiative, Learn to Earn Dayton, which is in the Strive-

Together Network, and after joining the GLR Campaign.

Begun in 2007 as a county-wide effort to improve

kindergarten readiness for children up to age 5, Ready

SetSoar broadened its focus to include improving reading

proficiency for children up to age 8. And it became part

of Learn to Earn Dayton’s partnership of more than

three dozen community leaders working to bolster the

region’s economy by ensuring a well-educated and skilled

future workforce.

This, in turn, led several business leaders, funders and

school officials who had once been most interested in

strengthening high school and postsecondary education

to see the value of starting earlier, with young children,

and addressing early-grade reading.

“ReadySetSoar had good traction with the early learning

community” but not beyond, says Ritika Kurup, Ready-

SetSoar assistant director. “We were able to get broader

engagement by looking at the entire cradle-to-career con-

tinuum and helping the community connect the dots.”

Ohio’s new “third grade reading guarantee,” requiring

most students to pass a state test in order to move to

fourth grade, also generated support for a GLR effort.

Several Dayton business leaders are now involved with

Preschool Promise, an early childhood education ini-

tiative. And a local energy delivery company, Vectren,

joined several other funders to support expansion of

summer programs for young children. “They see the

connection between summer learning and college and

career readiness,” Kurup says.

Because ReadySetSoar was so well known, it was impor-

tant to explain its new identity to the community. Strong

internal communication also was important because

ReadySetSoar and Learn to Earn Dayton are located in

different places with some different staff and partners.

But combining the two efforts — and being connected

to two nationwide networks — has, overall, proved ben-

eficial. “You get the biggest performance boost when

you learn from others who are engaged in similar work

and willing to share,” says Thomas Lasley, Learn to Earn

Dayton executive director. “All you have to do is adapt

it to your community’s unique needs and circumstances.

We have stolen liberally.”

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The Campaign helped flesh out the front end of Learn to

Earn Dayton. “Our region suffered a setback with a loss

of manufacturing and was hit hard by the 2008 recession

so it was easy to get people to rally around the cradle-

to-career vision to improve the workforce. But what did

that mean? How do we meet those goals?” says Kurup.

“The Campaign offered specific things the community

could do to move the data and technical assistance.”

From StriveTogether, Dayton partners learned how to

best pursue collective impact on six education outcomes

and “to break down silos” that can keep various partners

working individually, rather than in concert, says Kurup.

StriveTogether’s resources, says Lasley, also “enabled us

to align and leverage partners with more confidence

than if we were trying to create all these connections on

our own.”

When enlisting business leaders most interested in work-

force development, Lasley highlights both Campaign

strategies and StriveTogether’s cradle-to-career frame,

emphasizing that “we have be attentive to early learning

and third-grade reading.”

That message has taken root. “There is a culture change

— people are thinking systemically,” says Lasley. Now it is

business leaders who make the case that “the real answer”

to strengthening Dayton’s workforce and economy “is

to continue to make our early learning and third-grade

reading performance stronger.”

For more information about the Campaign for Grade-Level

Reading, visit gradelevelreading.net. Follow us on Twitter

@readingby3rd.

NOVEMBER 2015Writer: Betsy Rubiner; Design & Production: Shagas Design, Inc.; Photography: cover and pgs 3 & 8, Foundation for Tacoma Students;

pg 6, Starting Strong/Portland ConnectED; pgs 4, 10 & 12, Lisa Powell for ReadySetSoar