social capital so every
child reads proficiently
Big Hairy
Audacious Goal (BHAG)
with the fewest racial inequities than any state and accomplishes it in record-breaking time.
Minnesota’s K-12 classrooms
don’t read proficiently.
That’s more than
500,000 students.
Monticello’s
Rally to Read
We can do better. For kid’s sake we must.
Approximately 70,000 children are born in Minnesota every year.
Let’s not add hundreds of thousands of kids to that unconscionable reading proficiency statistic by failing to invest in children now. The time for action is now!
Language skill development doesn’t begin in, nor is it confined to, a classroom.
It begins before birth.
Long before teachers employ “the science of reading,” a child’s brain is being “wired” to read.
We want to support the tireless work teachers do in the classrooms so we can accelerate our ability to make every child a proficient reader.
Infants generate approximately 100,000 new neurons each day.
Roughly a million connections per second.
Connections either get used or the child’s brain discards them — they wither and never return.
It is possible to overcome poor brain nurturing, but it is much harder, takes longer, and costs more than doing it right from the start.
Every child deserves an equity of opportunity to optimize their brain and literacy development in the first 3 years of life so they are “wired” to read when they cross the threshold of a classroom.
The primary problem is the methods we’ve used to teach reading don’t work. Developments in neuroscience, research on school readiness, crime, juvenile detention, workplace readiness tell a compelling story of what works, what doesn’t and the economic consequences of ignoring the problem.
Minnesota:
- has what it takes.
- knows what works and what doesn’t.
- knows what to do, but do we have the will to do it?
- Erodes self-esteem, confidence and triggers shame.
- More likely to:
- get poor grades,
- be truant,
- drop out of school,
- end up in special education,
- have discipline problems,
- The ripple effect: family, livelihood, community, health and has toxic impact on the workplace and the economic engine of the state.
- Not reading by 3rd grade is for many a pipeline to prison
- 85% of juveniles in juvenile court system are functionally illiterate.
- 70% of inmates in America’s prisons cannot read above a fourth- grade level.
While the problem crosses the socioeconomic strata of our state, it disproportionately impacts those living in pockets of poverty and in communities of Black, Indigenous and People of Color. MN has one of the worst racial reading gaps in the country. Teaching a child to read is one of the best strategies for improving racial equity in MN. It is the one civil rights disadvantage we know how to cure.
“a fierce urgency of now”
Unleashing Minnesota’s abundant social capital with a fierce urgency of now can result in a Minnesota Miracle – every child is a proficient reader by grade three.
Today’s readers = tomorrow’s leaders!
Reading sets kids up for success.
We can do better. For kid’s sake we must.
Watch Bernadeia Johnson, Former Superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools read the book “Girls Like Me” a gift from friend Carol Johnson who was also the former Superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools, to her granddaughter Reggie.
Star Tribune 12.22.2023 “Minnesota can, must rise in reading ranks”
Star Tribune 04.16.2023 “If Cuba can eradicate illiteracy, Minnesota certainly can.”
Star Tribune – 04.7.2024 “Monticello aspires to be the ‘Little Community That Could’ create proficient readers”
How to Talk to a Baby
Kids will succeed if we teach them to read! We need your help.
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