A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

 *WHAT: In 1998, the America Reads Challenge is working with organizations in all 50 states to pair children with learning partners to encourage summer reading. The number of project coordinators has grown from 14 in 1997 (serving 85,000 children) to 58 this summer, with libraries, child care centers, churches, colleges, and elementary schools providing reading activities for children at hundreds of locations across the country. Many of these programs will continue to provide extended learning opportunities for children throughout the school year.

 *WHY: For decades, studies have shown that the Asummer reading drop-off" has predictable, negative consequences for student achievement, particularly for disadvantaged children. A New York City study found that over 80 percent of the difference in student achievement between affluent whites and poor minorities was attributed to summer growth. Another study of high-poverty schools found that gains made by poor children during the school year were wiped out during the summer, leaving them once again behind their peers in the fall. A California study found that large differences in achievement between high and low income elementary school children was almost entirely due to gains made when school was not in session. Aggressive summer reading programs can help students to maintain their reading ability, catch up to grade level, or even get ahead.

 *HOW: The Read*Write*Now! program encourages children to read and write for 30 minutes each day, five days a week. At least one of those days, the child should be paired with a learning partner. Each child is also helped to obtain and use a library card and to learn a vocabulary word daily. After completing the 8 week course, the young reader is rewarded with a free pizza from Pizza Hut.

 *WHERE: A full list of coordinators and contacts is available at www.ed.gov/inits/americareads. (Look under President's Coalition, and Read*Write*Now! projects.) The following is a sampling:

• Read Boston's StoryMobile will bring books and reading enrichment activities into neighborhood summer programs serving nearly 6,500 children.
• DC Reads will provide one-on-one weekly tutoring in reading in nine Washington public schools. Students will also go on weekly field trips to neighborhood public libraries.
• The Maine Center for the Book is involving home health aides, nurses and social service professionals in encouraging families to read aloud to children starting in infancy.
• Montana State University-Billings is providing summer reading opportunities for Native American children in need of extra reading help by recruiting adult volunteers, high school students and older elementary school students to serve as learning partners.
• The Mayor of New Orleans and others are offering extended-day reading intervention, incorporating reading into summer day camps and in after-school programs.
• California, Delaware, Idaho, New Hampshire and Rhode Island have statewide efforts.

Pamela Hughes, communications director, or Ellen Frawley, coalition director