Community partnerships that support literacy development must bring together committed individuals representing different critical areas of expertise, experience, and knowledge about children, reading, education, and the community. The stakeholders include families, tutors, child care programs, public schools, businesses, family literacy programs such as Head Start and Even Start, and community agencies concerned with literacy. The America Reads Challenge encourages these stakeholders to combine their resources to reach a single critical goal - ensuring that all children can read well and independently by the third grade. Each community can build on the collective strengths of its citizens and institutions to implement a literacy development program that is tailored to address the reading needs of young children.
Literacy is about reading, but it is about more.
It is also about participating in the community, understanding the world around you, becoming a better citizen, and taking advantage of opportunities. It is in the interest of all of us to do what we can to ensure the reading success of every young child by the end of the third grade. When President Clinton framed the America Reads Challenge in August 1996, he set in motion a series of events that were designed to culminate in a national commitment to a shared goal of helping children to acquire basic reading abilities by the end of third grade. The goal that all children shall read well and independently by third grade has profound implications for the education of children in America. To a greater extent than heretofore, a benchmark goal for the schools has been set that calls for combined efforts of the total society if it is to be achieved.