Celebrate the accomplishments of the All-America City finalists and other communities in the network

• Help build the next chapter of the Campaign
• Meet the leading experts
• Discuss policy initiatives with senior state and federal officials
• Compare notes and share stories on the CSAP process
• Capture the lessons and insights
• Celebrate with the Pacesetter honorees and the AAC awardees

The 2012 All-America Cities will be announced 12 noon July 2 at an awards ceremony at the Grand Hyatt Denver.

Make hotel arrangements by linking here.

Find out more about what to do and how to get around in Denver while you are there at our Visit Denver microsite.

The special room rate is $152, single or double occupancy (plus state and local fees). Triple occupancy rates are also available. To get this discounted rate, please make your hotel arrangements through Connections Housing, the National Civic League’s hotel liaison (Link here).

If you want help in registering by phone or for your group, feel free to contact: Rusty Farmer, Connections Housing at 404.842.0000 or rusty@connectionshousing.com

You can also get this discounted rate for sleeping rooms if you want to arrive early or stay beyond the meeting dates. For ground transportation from Denver International Airport and entertainment/restaurant options while you are in Denver link here.  To find out about hotel amenities link here.

To keep costs low for participants, there will be no event registration fee.  National Civic League (with partners) is raising funds to pay for the meals and other meeting costs.

Book your airline reservations soon to get the lowest rates and to avoid the holiday travel crunch.

Each community that submitted a plan will join the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading network, which will provide access to experts, policymakers, and foundations investing in early literacy. The communities—ranging from big cities such as Los Angeles, Boston, and Seattle to smaller places like New Britain, Conn.— (see list here) are addressing what is clearly a national crisis: a full two-thirds of U.S. students, and fourth-fifths of low-income children, fail to become proficient readers in the early grades.

The third grade milestone marks the point when children shift from learning to read and begin reading to learn. Students who haven’t mastered reading by that time are more likely to get stuck in a cycle of academic failure, drop out of school, and struggle throughout their lives.

“The reading problem is stark, but the solutions are clear,” said Ralph Smith, the Annie E. Casey Foundation senior vice president who is managing director of the Campaign. “By working together and focusing on school readiness, attendance, and summer learning, communities can start to improve reading success today.”

Thirty-six of the participating communities have more than 500,000 residents, and 43 have fewer than 100,000. Mayors or county officials lead the effort in 26 communities, and United Way chapters lead in 23. In addition to the support they receive from the Grade-Level Reading network, each community will be included in a national grant registry where their plan can be reviewed by more than 100 foundations and philanthropic donors who fund early childhood and early learning and literacy projects.

“Communities have already won just by applying,” said Gloria Rubio-Cortes, president of the National Civic League, which sponsors the annual All-America City Award. “The act of coming together and creating a plan for improving early learning puts these places ahead. The application process was intended to elicit the best ideas, develop partnerships, and discover program efficiencies to put children on a track to graduation and success.”

Each community proposes strategies for tackling three underlying issues that can keep children from learning to read well:

• School Readiness — too many children are entering kindergarten already behind.
• School Attendance — too many young children are missing too many days of school.
• Summer Learning — too many children are losing ground academically over the summer.

The plans provide benchmark data for children in these communities, as well as strategies for ensuring more students are reading proficiently. Communities are taking a variety of approaches.

“Many of our cities have been deeply committed to the goal of grade-level reading and some have developed initiatives with promising results,” said Cliff Johnson, the executive director of the Institute for Youth, Education, and Families at the National League of Cities, a partner in the campaign. “The Grade-Level Reading Campaign gives communities an important opportunity to share what they’re doing with their peers and gain insights about how to bring these efforts to scale.”

Research shows that children who aren’t reading proficiently by the end of third grade are four times less likely to finish high school on time, one study showed. If they are poor and not reading proficiently, they are 13 times less likely to finish high school. And for children who live in areas of concentrated poverty, the prospects are even worse.

“No single sector can make real, lasting change alone,” said Brian Gallagher, CEO and President of United Way Worldwide, a founding member of the Campaign. “It’s so encouraging to see local United Ways, city leaders, foundations, libraries, and literacy councils working together to mobilize individuals and organizations around the need to help young kids read.”

The concerted local action comes at a time when states and the federal government are paying particular attention to early education through legislation and grant programs. It also complements efforts underway by United Way Worldwide and the National League of Cities. Other major partners include the United States Conference of Mayors, America’s Promise and the Council for a Strong America, whose Mission Readiness affiliate brings a strong national security message to the Campaign and other efforts to improve the prospects of the nation’s youngest children.

This year’s sponsors of the All-America City Awards include Southwest Airlines, the Official Airline of the All-America City Award; The Piton Foundation; PCL Construction Enterprises, Inc.; The Private Client Reserve of U.S. Bank; U.S. Bank; Greenberg Traurig LLP; The Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation, Inc.; FirstBank; and Colorado Municipal League.

The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is a collaborative effort by dozens of funders across the nation to: close the gap in reading achievement that separates many low-income students from their peers; raise the bar for reading proficiency so that all students are assessed by world-class standards; and ensure that all children, including and especially children from low-income families, have an equitable opportunity to meet those higher standards. For more information, visit www.gradelevelreading.net.

The National League of Cities is the nation’s oldest and largest organization devoted to strengthening and promoting cities as centers of opportunity, leadership and governance. NLC is a resource and advocate for 19,000 cities, towns and villages, representing more than 218 million Americans.

United Way Worldwide is a worldwide network in 40 countries and territories, including more than 1,200 local organizations in the U.S. It advances the common good, creating opportunities for a better life for all by focusing on the three key building blocks of education, income and health. United Way recruits people and organizations who bring the passion, expertise and resources needed to get things done.  LIVE UNITED® is a call to action for everyone to become a part of the change. For more information about United Way, please visit: LIVEUNITED.org.

Today we are excited to announce that the Community Solutions Action Plan (CSAP) online filing system is now open. (Navigate to the online filing system by clicking the link above or by typing this website address into your browser:https://www.wizehive.com/appform/login/aacapp2012)

After logging in, you will have the option to either upload your application as a file or to write the application in the text fields. Both Microsoft Word and PDF files are acceptable formats for uploaded documents. If you decide to complete the application by completing the text fields, you may do so over a couple of days.

The online filing system will save your content and will not time out.  Please remember that all CSAPs should be filed by no later than 11 PM PST on March 12, 2012.

Also, please plan on joining us for our next regularly scheduled webinar this Thursday at, March 8, from 2 to 3:30 pm East.  If you haven’t done so already, please click on this link to  register.

The focus of this webinar will be on the CSAP follow-up and peer review process.  We’ll also discuss our plans for the upcoming meeting of the national network in Denver, CO.

Equally impressive, though, was the mayor’s willingness to ask: “What can we all do, together, to make life better for all the residents of this community?”

Obviously, we liked the next part:

“The answer, I think, starts with embracing and enhancing the very values that make us an All-America City. The answer lies within taking that great foundation of community we have here and building upon it, neighbor-by-neighbor, block-by-block, with the help of businesses, schools, nonprofits and faith-based organizations – all the sectors whose contributions brought us this prestigious award.”

The mayor goes on to talk about civic engagement, collaboration, innovation and community building. This is what we hope happens when communities win the award, that they will use it not just to celebrate past victories, but think about how they can use it to move forward.

Link here to read the full transcript of Mayor Murphy’s address.

Or watch here:

For the past year, I have been contributing guest blogs about AAC for the State of the Re:Union website. SOTRU is changing its online format to focus more on podcasts, so I won’t be guest-blogging there anymore, but here is my farewell piece, an item about a Hawaiian community that won the AAC in 1985.

It’s an interesting story. Link here.

I would like to thank Al and the folks at SOTRU for the opportunity to share stories from past and present All-America Cities and wish them the best for their future endeavors in radio and new media.

• Ralph Smith on the Campaign for Grade Level Reading
• Stacey Stewart on United Way’s community-based grade level reading efforts
• Ron Fairchild on summer reading loss
• Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia and Christine Benero on Colorado’s reading campaign

Last October, more than 160 across the country submitted a letters of intent to participate in the 2012 All-America City Award for Grade-Level Reading and to join the Grade-Level Reading Network of Leading Communities. Civic leaders in most of the communities are now hard at work developing their Community Solutions Action Plans (CSAPs) to respond to three major challenges: too many children not ready for school and too far behind to catch up; too many children missing too many days of school and too much instructional time; and too many children losing ground over the summer months and returning to school in September further behind than when they left in June.

March 12 is the filing date for the CSAP. If your community was among the more than 160 that filed a Letter of Intent, this may be the time to check in with your local team leader. You can:

• Support, encourage, and where necessary nudge the process. Let the Team Leader and her/his team know that participating the Network is important to you.
• Volunteer to help on the task forces and workgroups charged with data gathering, program mapping, and consensus building.
• Monitor progress, nudge, and pitch in. The CSAPs are due on March 12. How is your city coming along?

In other AAC-GLR news:

The next All-America City Grade-Level Reading Award webinar will be Thursday, February 9 at 2-3:30 PM ET.  The webinar will go over the peer review process that will be used to guide this year’s selection of participants. You will also have a chance to hear from experts in early childhood and summer learning.

Join us to get your questions answered and gather ideas as you move into the final stages of completing your Community Solutions Action Plans (CSAPs) over the next few weeks.  Click here to register.

Here are some other important documents for participants in the 2012 AAC-GLR Awards.

• Framework for applying for an AAC-GLR Award
• List of participating (loi) communities
• Third Grade Reading “Success Matters” brochure