Jackson County Campaign for Grade-Level Reading

The Campaign focuses on an important predictor of school success and high school graduation, grade-level reading by the end of third grade. The Campaign works within three focus areas: school readiness, school attendance and summer learning. Our work is centered around research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This research tells us about the importance of learning to read on grade-level by third grade. Students who don't have this skill often struggle for the rest of their school years, are less likely to graduate from high school, go on in schooling, and less likely to become productive job-holding community members.  

Focus Area work:
Summer Learning--
~In the summer of 2024, we offered our the seventh year of Summer Adventure, a county-wide full day summer learning program that has served over 1000 students in the past seven summers.
~An average of 70% of students during the seven years of the program have maintained or improved their reading proficiency over the summer.
~ All four school public schools and two parochial schools share planning and decision making for our Summer Adventure program. We contract with other other services and enrichment providers in the county for the afternoon enrichment.

School Readiness--
~Provides medical clinics in Jackson County with free books for children's Well Child Exams.

~Provides dental clinics in Jackson County books for the Brush, Book, Bed program.
~Supports public libraries and child care centers with diverse books to supplement their collections.
~Supports enrollment in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program. 
~Initiated and supported installation of Little Free Libraries and Story Walks in Jackson County.
~Supports community and school literacy events and resource fairs with free book distributions, or reading related activities for children.

School Attendance--
~Coordinated and assisted county elementary counselors in selecting a research based curriculum, and found grant funding to assist school districts with purchase of this curriculum.
~Coordinated counselor meetings to assist/develop schools ability to address attendance concerns.

~Provides attendance information to families at events.

Testimonials

Parents love our Summer Adventure program. Year after year parents comment on our surveys how they notice their children reading more at home, and building their confidence by working in small group learning situations during our summer program.