2023 Pacesetter and Communications Expo: Writing the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Playbook


Kansas City Chiefs’ head coach Andy Reid—widely regarded as one of the best play designers and strategists in the game—paced the sidelines at this year’s Super Bowl clutching a laminated summary of the Chief’s playbook. Each play within was the product of wisdom gained from decades of experience.

Football plays are run strategically and flexibly based on the unique situations, conditions, and players in the game.

Inspired by Reid, the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (CGLR) is creating its own CGLR Playbook for the more than 350 communities participating in the GLR Network. CGLR will work this year to aggregate the network’s collective wisdom into a playbook that can be accessed easily, used flexibly, and updated annually.

CGLR community coalitions—including more than 100 in Georgia—have more than a decade of experience advancing efforts to disrupt generational poverty, improve early school success, and support literacy and language development.

The CGLR Playbook will feature the best ideas from the What’s Working XChange Census, Pacesetter and Bright Spots communities, and Communications Expo—all in one place—along with inspiring stories rooted in data, revealing more about what it takes to make strides to improve outcomes for our children and families.

Communities launching GLR coalitions will turn to the playbook for proven ideas for mobilizing partners and pivoting to implementation, while experienced community leaders will use it to guide ongoing adaptation of strategies—or test a new sequence of plays to move the needle on an outcome area, such as chronic absenteeism.

Help CGLR Call the Plays

Community leaders and partners across Georgia are invited to participate in this year’s Pacesetter Honors and Communications Expo. CGLR is especially interested in stories related to addressing chronic absence in kindergarten, increasing digital connectivity, and creating learning-rich environments.

Selected submissions will contribute to the CGLR Playbook.

2022 – 23 Pacesetter Honors

CGLR communities will address the topic of “Moving the Needle in Impact Areas: What Mobilized Communities Must Do” in these categories:

  • Ensure that fewer children start school so far behind
  • End chronic absence during the school year (including kindergarten)
  • Ensure that striving and struggling readers make progress during the summer
  • Address children’s health-related challenges to learning
  • Equip parents to succeed as their children’s first teachers, advocates, and coaches
  • Advance, align, and integrate grade-level reading and math
  • Slow learning loss and accelerate equitable learning recovery through access to the internet, tutors, and out-of-school learning

Georgia communities can file stories that respond to one or more of these categories on Georgia’s profile page on CLIP.

Begin the process by completing the 2023 What’s Working XChange census before selecting up to three stories to submit as part of your community’s self-nomination for Pacesetter recognition. Find out more about the process.

Not sure what to do? CGLR is happy to assist. Malai Amfahr, CGLR senior program officer for Constituency Outreach and Engagement, and Jenny Atkinson, CGLR senior consultant, will host office hours, beginning Monday, April 24, from 2 – 3 p.m. Interested community leaders can join from this Zoom link.

For more information, contact Malai Amfahr of CGLR at mamfahr@glrcenter.org or 515-249-4447.