Local Campaign for Grade Level Reading Aims to Decrease Summer Learning Loss
JOHNSTON COUNTY – Read to Grow Johnston County, a collaborative group working hard to connect resources, develop initiatives, and achieve the targets and milestones set to impact kindergarten readiness, chronic absenteeism, and summer learning loss celebrated National Summer Learning Week across our county, by hosting 10 “Paws for Reading” events!
Each event, held at local libraries, community spaces and parks, was designed to promote summer learning for all children. Every child who participated received and named their very own “Reading Pet”, a stuffed dog. To encourage each child to read over the summer, they were asked to sign a certificate promising to read to their adopted pet 20 minutes each day. Families attending the events received information about the importance of summer learning, including tips on how to support their child’s promise to read to their Pet daily.
Each event had a “celebrity” reader that read a story of their choice to the children. Our Celebrity readers were leaders in the community who all believe reading is critical to children’s success.
Over the summer break, students lose academic gains, especially economically disadvantaged students. These students can lose up to 2 months of academic gain over one summer, and this loss is cumulative over each summer keeping these children further behind when compared with their peers.
- 264 children participated
- 363 free books distributed
ABOUT READ TO GROW JOHNSTON COUNTY
Read to Grow Johnston County joined the National Campaign for Grade Level Reading in June 2021. Read to Grow consists of a wide variety of community members including business leaders, faith community members, families, Partnership for Children of Johnston County (PFCJC), My Kids Club, Johnston County Public Schools (JCPS), and JCPS Board of Education. As a collaborative group, Read to Grow Johnston County is working hard to connect resources, develop initiatives, and achieve the targets and milestones set to impact the 3 pillars of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (CGLR), kindergarten readiness, chronic absenteeism, and summer learning loss.
Read to Grow’s members are passionate about the success of all children and their families in Johnston County. They understand that for our communities to survive and thrive, children need to be reading on grade level, interventions need to start early and be sustainable, and most importantly, children cannot do this alone. The Campaign supports a whole-child approach, including addressing the needs of the family and other factors that impact a child outside of a school classroom.
For more information or to get involved contact Heather Machia at 919-975-2511.
