"The most important 20 minutes of your day...
is spent reading to a child."

Parent reading to a group of children.

Media

READ! A Bright Start = A Bright Future

New effort made to aid young readers
Sunday, April 26, 2009
By JEANETTE DeFORGE

Reprinted with permission.

SPRINGFIELD - An education foundation, pediatricians, business leaders and a nationally recognized author will join together to find a way to ensure all city children can read well by the time they finish the third grade.

Reading Success by Fourth Grade is a grass-roots initiative being launched through the Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation and combining dozens of groups focused on improving the lives of children.

"The third grade is a critical milestone. Until third-grade children learn to read and after third grade they read to learn," said Sally C. Fuller, project director for the Davis Foundation's Cherish Every Child project.

Read the full article on masslive.com...

Parents urged to read to kids
Thursday, April 30, 2009
By JEANETTE DeFORGE

Reprinted with permission.

SPRINGFIELD - Reading guru James J. Trelease wants everyone to know a "dirty secret." It isn't really the fault of teachers that two-thirds of city children are not proficient readers when they finish third grade.

Parents are children's first and most-important educators. They spend more time with their children, they decide if children have access to newspapers, books and libraries and they should be reading to children 20 minutes a day, said Trelease, a Springfield author of the best-selling "Read-Aloud Handbook."

He joined with school Superintendent Alan J. Ingram, members of the Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation, local business leaders and others at the Springfield Central Library to kick off an all-city initiative to ensure children have the skills they need to be proficient readers by age 9.

Read the full article on masslive.com...

Public Service Announcements

Watch the Bright Start PSAs or the Head Start PSAs developed in conjunction with ABC40.

READ

Helping parents support their children's early literacy skills is the work of the W.K. Kellogg-funded Talk/Read/Succeed program. Watch the videos below to learn more...
Effort to Boost Skills
Outreach Efforts

© The Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation. All Rights Reserved.