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

We, the ______________School community, establish this Compact for Reading in order to foster the improvement of reading and other language arts and to support the success of our students, so all may read well and independently. We believe this can be done with the planned partnership of parents, families, students, teachers, principals and community members.

Parent's and Family's Responsibilities

We will:

• Make sure our child attends school regularly, is on time, and is prepared to learn, with homework completed.
• Know what skills our child is learning in reading and other language arts classes each day.
• Do activities at home, like the School-Home Links, that continue our child's classroom learning at home.
• Read with or to my child for 30 minutes each day, five days a week.
• Get a library card for our child, and encourage our child to bring reading materials from the library into the home.
• Attend parent-teacher conferences and communicate frequently with our child's teacher, through notes and conversations, about how well our child is doing.

Student's Responsibilities

I will:

• Come to school on time and be ready to learn.
• Pay attention to my teachers, family, and tutors, and ask questions when I need help.
• Ask my family to read to me or with me for 30 minutes each day, five days a week.
• Complete my homework on time in a thorough and legible way.
• Welcome help from my family on my homework and papers.
• Return signed homework and papers to school.

Teacher's Responsibilities

I will:

• Provide quality teaching and leadership to my students and their families.
• Communicate frequently with families and tutors about my students' progress in reading and show them how they can help.
• Coordinate with other programs to make sure nightly assignments do not exceed time limits.
• Recognize that students are accountable for every assignment.
• Participate in meaningful professional development in how to teach reading, how to communicate with families, and how to work with tutors.
• Hold at least two parent-teacher conferences a year.

Principal's Responsibilities

I will:

• Set high standards in reading and other language arts by providing a challenging curriculum.
• Report publicly on schoolwide reading scores, and help teachers and parents to understand how adopting high standards can lead to the improvement of scores.
• Allocate resources to ensure high standards are met.
• Hold workshops on standards in reading and ways to set the standards into practice at school and at home.
• Provide reading materials and training so that parents can help their children learn to read.
• Establish training workshops for tutors and families to work with children on home activities like School-Home Links.
• Provide special benefits to teachers that meet with families and tutors in extended-learning programs.
• Welcome and involve all families, especially those with low literacy skills or limited English proficiency, or those who have not been involved in the school before.

Community Member's Responsibilities

I will:

• Make a commitment to help all children learn to read.
• Keep informed about the reading standards and the performance of schools in my area.
• Find out more about my school's literacy and reading standards.
• Contact business and other community organizations that could donate resources to local schools to help them meet high standards in reading.
• Volunteer to tutor students who need help in reading and other language arts skills or support and participate in training for tutors and other partners.
• Help to open other facilities where children can go after school to read with someone or to do their homework.
• Build a community network of concerned adults, consisting of community leaders, writers, journalists, and others who can be helpful to discuss and publicize local literary issues.

[Committing to Improvement]