The Miami-Dade Family Learning Partnership

Advancing reading, language and literacy: the foundations for progress

Vision: Miami-Dade will be a place where…

…parents and caregivers are effective as children’s first, and most important, teachers.

…children have high quality literacy and language instruction, beginning with early childhood experiences and extending throughout their school years.

…outstanding adult English and native language literacy programs are readily available to parents, caregivers and the greater community.

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To ensure that Miami-Dade’s children enter school with the foundation of language and literacy skills they need to succeed.

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Initial Primary Goal

Why should literacy be a top priority in Miami-Dade?

• School Readiness: 30% of children in Miami-Dade start first grade without a foundation to learn.

• Children’s Literacy: Nearly 43% of 3rd-10th graders in Miami-Dade public schools are struggling at the lowest levels of literacy.

• High-School Dropouts: Miami-Dade’s high-school dropout rate is 9%. This is 44% higher than the national average.– Students with low literacy skills are significantly more likely to drop

out of school.– School dropouts are two and a half times more likely to be on

welfare and almost twice as likely to be unemployed.

• Adult Literacy: 42% of adults in the county operate at the lowest level of English literacy. This undermines their economic progress and ability to help their children succeed in school.

Research shows that improving literacy boosts the quality of life for everyone

• Investing Early: Every dollar invested in early childhood education saves seven in future special education, crime, welfare and other costs.

• Impact of Programs: Parents who participate in family literacy programs read or look at books with their children 40% more often.

• Access to Books: The more types of reading materials there are in the home, the better children perform in reading proficiency.

• Family Education: Student SAT scores rise with increased parental education.

And we have the means and knowledge to make significant progress:

•School Readiness: It has become a new, national movement, and Miami-Dade is poised to build on the resources and knowledge generated from this movement.

•Programs: We have a number of education programs, but its incumbent upon us to collaborate across sectors. Offering a continuum of services will create new opportunities for our community.

•Language Development: We can help all parents, irrespective of their socio-economic levels, through emphasizing the language development of our children.

•Infrastructure: We have new resources, including a literacy hotline, and advertising mechanisms to communicate better with families.

•Public and Economic Health: Just as we immunize our children against diseases, we have the knowledge to immunize our children against illiteracy.

Focusing particularly on families with young children, we will advance

three key strategies:

Strategy 1: Parents as First Teachers. Provide parents/caregiverswith guidance on nurturing children’s language(s)/literacy, andinformation on family and adult literacy education opportunities.

Strategy 2: Children’s Literacy. Strengthen the literacypreparation and instruction of children from birth through grade 2 toensure a strong learning continuum.

Strategy 3: Adult Literacy. Develop recommendations to improveadult literacy education in English and native languages, andengage employer support for learners.

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Strategy 1: Parents as first teachers

Methods to achieve progress

1. Outreach to parents/caregivers through:

Employers Schools Faith-Based Organizations Courts Literacy Providers Family Service Providers Health Providers Head Start Libraries Community Gathering Places Local Bookstores Local Government Child Care Providers Native Language Media

Activities: Workshops and events that offer a toolkit to parents/caregivers on nurturing their children’s language development, and provide information on family and adult literacy opportunities. Expansion of Reach Out and Read to all clinics that serve children on Medicaid.

- Emphasize parent-to-parent engagement. - Offer incentives to encourage participation (books, child photos, meals).

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Strategy 1: Parents as first teachers

Methods to achieve progress, continued

2. Reinforce outreach via an ad-media campaign

Activities: Create hotline capacity for literacy program referral. Advertise through the Teach More/Love More campaign to make parents and caregivers aware of the importance of nurturing children’s language development and love of books, and to issue a call to action. Coordinate with the Ad Council campaign to promote the referral hotline.

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Strategy 1: Parents as first teachers

Methods to measure progress

• Positive change in parent behavior measured via surveys conducted in collaboration with agencies involved in child development.

• Increased enrollment in family and adult literacy education programs.

• High media consumption (e.g native language radio station ratings and/or listener calls, survey reactions to public awareness campaign, use of in-store kiosks, number of web hits, etc..).

• Increased distribution of books at newborn nurseries, medical clinics, day care centers, early childhood programs, schools, via radio requests, etc...

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Strategy 1: Parents as first teachers

Potential lead organization and partners

Potential Lead Organizations:

The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and Miami-Dade Public Schools

Potential Key Partners:

Chambers of Commerce School Readiness CoalitionUnited Way of Miami-Dade Association of Independent Schools ofHigher Education Florida (AISF)Miami-Dade Public Library System Head StartChildren’s Services Council Alliance for Human Services Faith-Based Organizations Reach Out and Read/Miami PediatricFamily Central SocietyEducation Department of Child Care ProvidersThe Miami Herald

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Strategy 2: Children’s literacy

Methods to achieve progress

1. Support universally available, quality pre-K for 4 year olds.

Activities: Support the Mayor of Miami-Dade County’s initiative. Engageliteracy experts, parents and caregivers to meet with editors and opinionleaders, write op-ed pieces, and participate in other efforts to influencepublic opinion.

2. Support for improved child care and pre-K training.

Activity: Work to require literacy development and training of all licensed child care providers and teachers of birth-pre-K children. Conductsystematic, measurable outreach to informal child care providers,employing potential models from other U.S. cities.

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Strategy 2: Children’s literacy

Methods to achieve progress, continued

3. Advocate for a formal educational commitment to early literacy development.

Activities: Develop a pre-K component in the Comprehensive Reading Plan (currently K-12). Create coordination and communication mechanisms between child care providers and the schools to develop a continuum of services. Work to create sustained, centralized funding for early grade literacy instruction. Expand the availability of family literacy through Head Start and other early care and education settings

4. Sustain and expand high-quality tutoring for young learners.

Activity: Engage local universities, colleges and Miami-Dade Public Schools to sustain and/or expand their participation in the America Reads and other tutoring programs.

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Strategy 2: Children’s literacy

Methods to measure progress

• Increase in school readiness indicators, particularly the LAP-D language and learning assessment for pre-K programs and entrance assessments for Kindergarten programs.

• Increase in grade level reading through literacy-specific student assessment measurements for children in grades one and two.

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Strategy 2: Children’s literacy

Potential lead organization and partners

Potential Lead Organizations:

Miami-Dade School Readiness Coalition and Miami-Dade Public Schools

Potential Key Partners:

Chambers of Commerce United Way of Miami-DadeMayor of Miami-Dade County Higher EducationHead Start Child Care ProvidersChild Development Services Family CentralThe Early Childhood Initiative Reach Out and ReadFoundation Children’s Services CouncilAlliance for Human Services

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Strategy 3: Adult literacy

Methods to achieve progress

Establish a task force

Activities: Develop consistent standards of instruction, learner evaluation and service. Provide specific recommendations onexpanding and strengthening native language literacy instruction.Develop recommendations for how employers can encourage theirworkers to pursue literacy and language education.

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Strategy 3: Adult literacy

Methods to measure progress

• Improvements in program accessibility, instruction and methods of measuring student progress

• Increased employer adoption of policies and practices that encourage employees to pursue language and literacy instruction.

• Increased use of literacy-related services

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Strategy 3: Adult literacy

Potential lead organization and partners

Potential Lead Organizations: Miami-Dade Public Schools andGreater Miami Chamber of Commerce

Potential Key Partners:

United Way of Miami-DadeWorkforce DevelopmentHead StartSelected outstanding adult and family literacy providers

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Resource for Strategies 1-3

Family Learning Network

Comprised of literacy and family service providers, theFamily Learning Network will be a vehicle for:

• maintaining up-to-date information on literacy and language services and funding sources;

• enlisting committee members and obtaining advice for Family Learning Partnership strategies; and

• disseminating information on Family Learning Partnership activities

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Proposed Initial Institutional Home:The Early Childhood Initiative

Foundation

Host Institution Responsibilities:

• Ensure coordination of all three strategy areas.• Coordinate funding mobilization and partnership

development.• Monitor and report progress of the three strategy areas.• Manage advocacy.• Hire an executive director and supporting staff with

assistance of a hiring committee.

• Recommendation: Establish the Miami-Dade Family Learning Partnership as a free-standing organization within two years.

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Miami-Dade Family Learning Partnership

Host: The ECIF. Become independent organization within

2 years

Leadership Group

Strategy 1:Parents as first

teachersECIF/MDCPS

Strategy 2:Children’s

literacySRC/MDCPS

Strategy 3:Adult literacy

MDCPS/Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce

Working Committees

Chair(s)

Family Learning Network

Provide up-to-date service and funding information

Advise strategies

Assist outreach

Disseminate information21

Committee #1 Committee #2 Committee #3