Insight: There is a 76% correlation between end of 1st grade phonics and 3rd grade EOG scores

Laying the Foundation for Impact: Systems Change 2018 - 2019

SMALL GROUP INSTRUCTION PILOT

Launched an 18-month pilot project with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the Belk Foundation to engage UPD Consulting to build a learning community among six elementary schools to improve their small group reading instruction. The insights from this project contributed to the school district’s adoption in 2019 of a new literacy curriculum and movement towards standards-aligned K-3 literacy instruction.

2018

The first annual Summer Reading Campaign kicked off in 2018, raising awareness of the critical importance of reading and learning over the summer with a robust social media and digital effort, coupled with traditional advertising. We partnered with Smart Start of Mecklenburg County to run advertisements on city buses all summer long. In 2019, community partners helped to distribute over 22,000 flyers about the summer slide to families through CMS schools and programs. We plan to continue this summer campaign annually.

Kicked off the first annual Commit To 80 public campaign in March 2018. During Commit To 80, Read Charlotte asks the entire community over a two-week period to pledge specific commitments to get involved to improve early literacy. This annual effort helps to raise awareness, facilitate more partnerships and maintain momentum across the community. In 2018, we received over 500 commitments during Commit to 80. In 2019, we received over 1,200 commitments. We plan to continue Commit to 80 annually each spring.

2019

TRANSFORMATION NETWORK

Launched the Read Charlotte Transformation Network (RCTN), a network of school-community partnerships with the goal of building a platform to improve local collaboration and coordination focused on literacy. The RCTN helps to coordinate: high quality tutoring, family literacy nights, building home libraries, and summer reading. In 2018- 2019, 50 community partners helped coordinate distribution of 55,000 books in 25 Book-APalooza events, coordinated 19 Family Literacy Nights attended by 1,700 people and provided over 500 tutors across 10 CMS schools. In the 2019-2020 school year, we have 11 participating CMS schools and are looking to grow the Network’s reach and impact to serve 30-60 schools by 2025.