About Read to Succeed Buffalo

 
Our 2010 Annual Report is now available!

Read to Succeed Buffalo is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing early childhood literacy and third grade reading scores. Research shows that children who don't read well by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school than proficient readers.

Read to Succeed works to prepare children from birth through age 8 for Kindergarten and the early grades through improved exposure to developmentally appropriate, literacy-rich environments.

Through its collaborative initiatives, Read to Succeed has developed models that provide children with the tools they need to be successful in school.

With the help of Buffalo's three largest foundations and collaboration with nearly 40 local organizations who share our mission to improve literacy in our community, Read to Succeed works to give children the tools they need to get a successful start in school and in life.

Read to Succeed Buffalo is determined to give every child a strong start when entering Kindergarten. More than four in ten children entering Kindergarten in Buffalo Public Schools are behind in literacy skills.  With the help of Buffalo's three largest foundations and nearly 40 organizational partners, we give children a fighting chance to succeed in school.

Why is Early Childhood Literacy So Important?

Research shows that children who start behind in school tend to stay behind, leading to poor academic achievement, high drop out rates and often a lifetime of struggle.  

Kindergarten Preparedness

A significant number of children who enter Kindergarten in Buffalo Public Schools are one to two years behind in their development of the literacy skills expected for Kindergartners. 

Many children have limited oral vocabularies, cannot identify letters of the alphabet or letter sounds, and do not understand the elements of a book including that there is an author, an illustrator, that we read from left to right, that letters make up words, words make up sentences, pictures illustrate the words, etc.

Third Grade Reading Matters

There has been some improvement in Kindergarten preparedness in Buffalo over the last decade with nearly 72 percent of children leaving Kindergarten at or above benchmark according to DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) assessments.

However, after Kindergarten there is a decline in student performance in the early grades with only 49% of third graders performing at benchmark on the same DIBELS assessment. Only 29 percent perform at or above benchmark on the New York State English Language Arts (ELA) tests.

Third grade is also a critical turning point for children since it marks the change from "learning to read" to "reading to learn."  Children who are not proficient at reading by third grade tend to fall behind, as reading is an expected skill, necessary to be able to allow the child to begin to grasp content.

According to a 2011 report, Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation, children who don't read well by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school than proficient readers. The research also shows that children who live in poverty and don't read proficiently early on are 13 times more likely not to finish high school than their peers who have never lived in poverty and are proficient readers.

Children are born with the tools they need to succeed and every parent wants the best for their child.  Read to Succeed is working to provide the tools children need to improve literacy and language skills and is dedicated to empowering parents to provide the best start for their children.

The Focus of Read to Succeed Buffalo

Since the inception of Read to Succeed Buffalo in 2007, our focus has been on improving the literacy skills for young children. Rather than starting from scratch in developing programs, we draw on scientifically based reading research and the strengths and expertise of our partners in the Read to Succeed literacy coalition. Together we create innovative and collaborative programs that give children the skills they need to be successful in school.

We achieve our mission by:

1.) Creating models of educational excellence in preschool settings, such as Head Start programs and home-based childcare provider programs, and

2) Creating a culture of literacy in our community that encourages families to make literacy and reading a priority in their homes.

The Creation of Read to Succeed Buffalo

Read to Succeed Buffalo was created as a result of a comprehensive strategic planning process, involving more than 200 community stakeholders. Student performance was studied and the need for improved literacy was identified as a critical issue. A strategic plan and new collaborative service models to improve literacy levels, and ultimately, student achievement, were developed as a result of this process.  

While the strategic plan focuses on the inter-generational issues regarding low literacy and the entire age span, we needed a place to start and began our initial implementation with early childhood. We realized significant success in this area and have determined, with encouragement from our Board of Directors and our funders, to deepen our focus on early childhood intervention and to expand our reach to more children in Buffalo.

In order to incubate new models of educational excellence, we decided to focus our efforts in one area of the city.  We chose the northeast quadrant of Buffalo (primarily zip code 14215) because there was great need in terms of poverty and low literacy skills, but also strong community assets on which to build.  By "going deeply" into one community, we felt we could test our new models and, when we achieved excellence, we could replicate the model into other areas of the city.

The organization began its efforts with an emphasis on early childhood programs to prepare children for Kindergarten by focusing on literacy and language skills.  These programs have realized strong results to date. Read to Succeed is currently focused on reaching young children and their families, with plans to expand to other areas in the city and other age groups in the future.

Support for Read to Succeed Buffalo

Buffalo's three largest foundations, the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, John R. Oishei Foundation and the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation have created a Funders Collaborative to support Read to Succeed Buffalo.

The U.S. Department of Education, The Josephine Goodyear Foundation, Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation and M&T Bank have also funded specific initiatives.  Contributions from individual supporters also help to fund the work of Read to Succeed Buffalo.