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Minnesota’s Rally to Read Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG)

Our BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal): to transform Minnesota to the state with the highest reading proficiency with the fewest racial inequities in the shortest time imaginable. Our benchmarks of success are that every child is wired to read by age 3 and reading proficiently at grade level. We'll achieve it with a "fierce urgency of now."

As you well know, the ability to read is one of the most consequential skills for a child to optimize their future. Reading has emerged as the civil rights opportunity of our day to address racial inequities in our communities. The good news is it is a social issue we know how to solve. We are excited to share a strategy to mobilize communities to solve it. For the sake of our children, we must make it happen.

Learn More About Fundraising Campaigns

View Video Presentation About Who We Are

Read Our Statement of Purpose

Read Our Proposal for Funding

Our Board

Meet Our Board
laurie ohmann
Laurie Ohmann
Board Member
Hyon Kim CEO of MN Best Inc.
Hyon Kim
Board Member
Amy Trombley
Amy Trombley
Board Member
dr martin chaffee
Dr. Chip Martin-Chaffee
Board Member
Tim Reardon
Tim Reardon
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND EX OFFICIO BOARD MEMBER
Gwen Aduke Matthews
Gwen Aduke-Matthews
BOARD MEMBER
Jendayi Berry
BOARD MEMBER
Dr Stanley Brown
Dr. Stanley Brown, Ed.D,
BOARD MEMBER
Ricardo De Santiago
Ricardo DeSantiago – Torres; M.Ed., M.A.
BOARD MEMBER
Roslyn Harmon
Roslyn Harmon
BOARD MEMBER
Tim Munkeby
Tim Munkeby
BOARD MEMBER
Eric Olson
Eric Olson
BOARD MEMBER
Neerja Singh
Neerja Singh
BOARD MEMBER

Legislative Co-Authors For Minnesota's Rally To Read Appropriations Bill

MN Literacy Day Minnesota Representatives
MN Literacy Day

Senator Kelly Morrison
Senator Jim Abeler
Representative Bianca Virnig
Representative Dave Pinto
Representative Mary Francis Clardy 
Representative Maria Isa Perez-Vega
Former Representative Heather Edelson (Current Hennepin County Commissioner)

Minnesota Representative and Tim Reardon
Minnesota Representative
Minnesota Representative
Minnesota Representative

Supporters of
Minnesota's Rally to Read

Martha Farrel Erickson, PhD

Director of University of Minnesota’s Children, Youth and Family Consortium (retired), International Consultant on Early Childhood Development

Bernadeia Johnson
Former Superintendent Minneapolis Public Schools

Barb Yates
Former Executive Director, Think Small

Todd Otis
Public Affairs Consultant, early childhood advocate 

Peter Hutchinson
Former Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent, Former Independence Party Candidate for Governor of MN 

Tom Horner
Public Affairs Consultant, Former Independence Party Candidate for Governor of MN

Senator Kelly Morrison
MN State Senate

Representative Mike Frieberg
MN State Representative

Councilperson Rebecca Noecker
City of St. Paul 

Elliot James, PhD
Associate Professor of History, University of Minnesota Morris

Frank Forsberg
Forsberg Consulting

Monica Martin
Monticello Rotary Club and member of Latinos Helping Latinos

Bill Svrluga
Founder and Executive Director of Before Racism

Barbara Shin
Education Equity Consultant

Roger Sheldon
Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics (Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine), The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine 

Endorsed by the MN Character Council (members include):

Matt Bostrom
Founder/Consultant, Center for Values-Based Initiatives

Michael Hartoonian
Professor (retired), Universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin

Suwana Kirkland
Director, Dakota County Community Corrections

Todd Leko
President, International Business Development Council

Bill Mittlefehldt
Consultant, Cross Currents

Ambrose R. Russell
Founder/Executive Director, The Inner Hero

Don Salverda
Leadership & Management Consultant

Barbara Shin
Education Equity Consultant

Stephen B. Young
Global Executive Director, Caux Round Table

Deborah Yungner
Founder, ERBUS LifeGRID Technologies 

TESTIMONIALS

Statements of support
“
In St. Paul, we want every child to get critical early learning, so they can be wired to read by age 3 and reading proficiently by grade 3. Mobilizing communities to "Rally to Read" can help make that happen."
Councilperson Rebecca Noecker , St Paul City Council
“
I’m pleased, happy and over the moon excited that the MN Rally to Read Community Innovation Forum in Monticello went well. It is an ambitious, yet doable goal when a community works together to achieve the highest reading proficiency with the fewest racial inequities. It is clear the community wants to own this challenge and wants to be a winning team. Moonshots are possible.
Bernadeia Johnson , former Superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools
“
The foundation for reading occurs in the first three years of life through exposure to language and books. Let’s help all of our children be ready for success in school. The Minnesota Rally to Read can bring our communities together to do just that
Todd Otis , Early Childhood Advocate
“
MN Rally to Read’s Community Innovation Action Planning Process is designed to mobilize Minnesota’s unprecedented social capital to solve the problem that children aren’t reading proficiently. It augments what schools are doing to incorporate the science of reading into classrooms that is now mandated by the MN Read Act. It recognizes ‘it takes a village’ to create proficient readers.”
Tim Reardon , MN Rally to Read Facilitator
“
I have been writing for years – articles, essays, editorials, even a novel (The Advocate) – regarding the positive impact of early childhood education not only on children but all of us. Yet changes seem to evolve at a snail’s pace. Involving a community in a “Rally to Read,” grass-roots movement will get the right people involved to make things happen: ensuring ALL kids in a community are “wired to read by 3,” and more likely to “read proficiently at their grade level.
Tim Munkeby , Published author, educator, advocate for early childhood education
“
The Minnesota Rally to Read offers a crucial element for ridding our state of the inability to read proficiently--which now affects nearly half of our school children at most grade levels. The crucial element is beginning at the beginning. Language learning begins in the first few weeks and months of life, and all later gains are built on knowing the meaning of many words before ever getting to "school". One cannot learn to decode and understand the written word if one does not know the spoken word. The MN Rally to Read starts at the start with parents, adds family and child care teachers, and using talking, playing, reading and singing, takes advantage of the fastest brain growth and fastest learning of our entire lives.
Roger Sheldon , Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics (Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine), The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine