Growing Moore Readers
Growing Moore Readers unites families and community partners to make every moment a brain building moment for children in our community. We work together to ensure all children in Moore County achieve the most important predictor of long term success - grade-level reading by the end of the third grade.
Why Is This Important?
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 one-third of Moore County third graders are not proficient readers, according to local school data. This disturbing statistic is made even worse by the fact that more than half of 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.
For more information on third grade reading proficiency, visit http://gradelevelreading.net/about-us/campaign-ove...
Why Is This Important?
Just as there is an achievement gap in school performance, there is a school readiness gap that separates disadvantaged children from their more affluent peers. As early as 18 months, low-income children begin to fall behind in vocabulary development and other skills critical for school success. Parents play an enormous role in closing this gap, as do daycare providers, pediatricians, preschools programs, and the broader community.
Research shows that learning begins long before a child enters kindergarten. Children, even infants soak up words, rhymes, songs, and images. Vocabulary development is particularly important. A child’s health, and the timely recognition of developmental delays, is another critical aspect of school readiness. Doctors, care providers, and preschool teachers play a key role.
What Works
Having books in the home has been proven to improve a child’s reading performance, cause children to read more and for longer lengths of time, and produce improved attitudes toward reading and learning among children. Additionally, children who live in print-rich environments and who are read to during the first years of life are much more likely to be reading proficient when they enter school. Moore County's local book distribution projects and book drives help ensure more young children in our community have access to engaging, age-appropriate books at home and give parents the supports and resources they need to succeed in launching their children as lifelong readers.
Why Is This Important?
Research spanning 100 years has proven that students lose ground academically when they are out of school for the summer. The problem is particularly acute among low-income students who lose an average of more than two months in reading achievement in the summer, which slows their progress toward third grade reading proficiency. And it exacerbates the achievement gap with their middle-class peers.
Funders, policymakers, and community leaders can help schools and local organizations address summer learning loss by supporting strong programs engaging more children in summer learning opportunities. Transcending the punitive and remedial model of summer school, summer learning’s new form is a blend of core academic learning, hands-on activities, arts, sports, technology, and meaningful relationships.
What We Do
Libraries across Moore County hold special programs and events during the summer to engage children and their families in learning activities and to encourage daily reading time. Community partners have also joined together through the creation of a BINGO card to encourage family experiential learning
Who We Serve
Preschool children, elementary, middle and high school students and their families.
How We Impact
Research has conclusively shown that students lose ground academically when they are out of school for the summer. Therefore, the libraries will counteract summer learning loss by providing opportunities of hands on learning through strong in-house programs and by encouraging both reading and experiential learning with recognition and rewards given through the Summer Reading Program.
What We Do
Who We Serve
How We Impact
What We Do
Southern Pines Public Library, Southern Pines Primary School and Boys and Girls Club staff provided all children K-5 attending the Boys & Girls Club with learning opportunities throughout the summer, including 45 minute, small group reading sessions with teachers and teacher assistants three times a week, hour- long book clubs every week, and at least 30 minutes of Stop, Drop and Read time every day. The children were also enrolled in the Library’s Summer Reading Program and the time they spent reading at the Boys & Girls Club summer program counted towards books and prizes. The total enrollment of children 5-11 at the Boys & Girls Club during the summers of 2013 and 2015 were 199 students. In the summer of 2014, students from both SOuthern Pines and Aberdeen participated so enrollment increased to 287.
Who We Serve
The Boys & Girls Club of the Sandhills serves any child between the ages of 5-18.
All students in the Boys and Girls Club participated in literacy activities. Students who had completed grades K-2 who were identified as “at risk” by the schools, are targeted for participation in the reading groups.
How We Impact
The mission of the Boys & Girls Club of the Sandhills is to inspire, enable and educate young people from all backgrounds and circumstances to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens.
The goal of the summer learning project is to encourage families with children who have been identified by the school as already being below grade level in reading to send their children to the Boys & Girls Club for the summer, in order to maintain and increase their reading levels. There students are motivated to read through experiential learning, incentives and structure.
Why Is This Important?
Chronic absence is a measure of how much school a student misses for any reason. It is a broader measure than truancy, which only tracks unexcused absences. Starting in the early grades, the percentage of students missing 10 percent of the school year can reach remarkably high levels, and these early absences can rob students of the time they need to develop literacy skills. Tracking chronic absence is a data-driven solution that can be built into federal grant applications and can be an integral part of parent engagement programs. It can be a goal for a funder’s investment—or a measure of a grantee’s success. Chronic absence can also tip off communities to families and neighborhoods in need of further support, since poor school attendance can be an early warning sign of challenging social, economic, and health conditions.
Why Is This Important?
What We Do
Why Is This Important?
Why Is This Important?
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