More Helpful Futures for Children
The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is a collaborative network dedicated to ensuring that all children, particularly those from low-income families, succeed in school and are proficient in reading by the end of third grade.
It includes more than 350 communities across the nation. It involves a broad coalition of more than 5,200 stakeholders, including schools, nonprofits, businesses, government agencies, and philanthropic organizations. By working together, these communities aim to improve children's literacy rates and educational outcomes.
Virginia Beach READS
Virginia Beach GrowSmart leads the local Virginia Beach READS campaign. For more than a decade, GrowSmart has actively participated in the national Campaign for Grade-Level Reading network. Our partners are Virginia Beach City Public Schools, the Virginia Beach Public Library, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Virginia Beach Office of Volunteer Resources, the nonprofit organization Square One, Mile High Kids Community Development, GrowSmart Foundation and United Way South Hampton Roads.
National Recognition
Virginia Beach READS is committed to moving the needle on school readiness and third-grade reading. Our work has been recognized with Pacesetter Honors (in 2023, 2019, 2018, and 2015) for our population-wide progress demonstrated in the areas of school readiness and reading proficiency.
Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
Quick Facts
- Children from poverty hear 30 million fewer words than affluent children by age 3.
- A child from a disadvantaged background can enter kindergarten 18 months behind his peers.
- More than 80% of kindergarteners struggling to read will still struggle by third grade.
- Retaining children in grades K-3 costs Virginia taxpayers $80 million each year.
- A child’s vocabulary by age 3 is predictive of her reading achievement in third grade.
- A child who does not read proficiently by the end of third grade is four times more likely than a skilled reader to drop out of school without earning a diploma.