Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation Joins Collaboration to Improve Grade Level Reading

The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation is collaborating with local partners including United Way of East Central Iowa, the five metro school districts (Cedar Rapids, College Community, Marion, Linn-Mar and Xavier), Grant Wood Area Education Agency, the Cedar Rapids Public Library, Rockwell Collins, and Diversity Focus on a community reading initiative to improve grade level reading in our community.

On March 12, the community is invited to an event to share and discuss resources and challenges in improving grade level reading, and begin mapping a local initiative.

The Cedar Rapids metro area will join a network of 140 communities nationwide that are working on initiatives in their communities to increase children’s reading proficiency to help them succeed in school and beyond.  This national effort is called The Campaign for Grade Level Reading.  Our local, metro area effort is named Reading Into Success.

The Reading Into Success community conversation will be on Thursday, March 12 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Cedar Rapids Public Library.  For more information, click here:  https://www.facebook.com/ReadingIntoSuccess

Grade level reading is a community leadership priority for the Community Foundation. This priority evolved from the organization’s efforts to stabilize the lives of children and families in core neighborhoods after the flood of 2008. This next phase will help youth across the metro area successfully transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn,” a long identified key element to the educational success of children.

While the nonprofits and schools in our metro area are doing excellent work with children. Reading Into Success is an opportunity to learn from one another, identify opportunities, and develop a community-wide system that leads to reading success for all children. Local participants will help decide strategies needed for our community.