Get Georgia Reading Campaign partners rally people, organizations, and communities to apply a framework for action so that all children in Georgia become proficient readers by the end of third grade.
In 2013, two-thirds of Georgia’s children were not reading proficiently by the end of third grade. This has significant and long-term consequences for all Georgians, because low achievement in reading affects our economy, our safety, and our health.
Unwilling to accept the status quo, Governor Nathan Deal and First Lady Sandra Deal came together with Georgia leaders that year to begin to address third-grade reading proficiency—not only as an education issue, but as an urgent priority for all who care about children’s health and well-being.
Get Georgia Reading is a collaboration of more than 100 public and private partners that are finding new ways of working together across Georgia, across sectors, across agencies and organizations, and across the early years and early grades, using data to inform decision making.
An eight-month planning process helped develop a clearly defined framework to create the conditions for every child in Georgia to become a proficient reader by the end of third grade. This framework consists of four research-based pillars that work together to provide a platform for success: Language Nutrition, Access, Positive Learning Climate, and Teacher Preparation and Effectiveness.
Campaign partners use the four pillars to create new opportunities for change and support collective action in communities throughout the state.
The Campaign operates under the auspices and guiding vision of a Cabinet of high-level statewide public and private organization leaders who are supported by two subcommittees providing support in Communications as well as Data and Evaluation.
The Campaign has outlined five key roles to support this collective effort:
- Identify and make sense of factors that affect a child’s path to third-grade reading proficiency—starting from birth
- Connect and support decision-makers to move from sector-focused action to population-focused action
- Use research and data to inform action and align policies and investments to strengthen the four pillars
- Inspire collective action and innovation to create the conditions—defined by the four pillars—so that all children are on a path to read proficiently by the end of third grade
- Celebrate partner successes and clearly communicate possibilities to realize the four-pillars across the state