Our Focus

313Reads is a coalition committed to working side by side in collective impact with citywide, statewide, and national partners toward early literacy access, equity, and justice to support grade level reading.

We operate with the basic understanding that Detroit children, families, community members, and community organizations are brilliant and can do anything when we have access to high quality opportunities, resources, and support. The unacceptable literacy inequities that impact our children are the product of our current systems. Our collective impact network is committed to addressing those systemic inequities through the levers of Early Language and Literacy, Summer and Out-of-School Time Learning, and Early Childhood Enrollment and Attendance.

Early Literacy

Summer Learning

Attendance

Early Literacy

Ensure early childhood educators have access to the resources and tools to support early literacy.

313 Reads Detroit Literacy

Early literacy is foundational across early childhood systems and programs. It means early childhood educators are prepared to build effective literacy skills, families are supported to ensure their children’s learning, and schools are aligned with early childhood educators. Research shows that children in families impacted by poverty experience lack of access to books and high-quality early childhood and pre-kindergarten programs. Furthermore, the home-based literacy practices of children impacted by poverty, particularly Black and Brown children, are often viewed through a deficit lens as a mismatch to school-based, print-based literacies. The 313Reads collective works to  support children and families through asset lenses and to align Detroit’s early literacy community in order to collectively reach shared goals.

Our Goals:

  • Engage diverse partners and align work at community, district, city, state, and national levels to serve our city’s children ages 0-8 with coordinated third grade reading efforts and related early childhood literacy assessments
  • Serve as an early language and literacy resource to diverse partners and the larger early literacy community in growing and integrating the knowledge and skills for early language and literacy programming that is evidence-based, data-informed, culturally sustaining, and grows literacy equity
  • Growing literacy equity and justice in collaboration with communities and diverse partners at multiple levels

Early Literacy Table co-chairs:

  • Kenyatta Stephens from Black Family Development, Inc.
  • Dr. Leah van Belle from 313Reads
  • Cindy Eggleton from Brilliant Detroit
Summer Learning

Summer Learning

Prevent summer reading loss.

313 Reads Detroit Literacy

Summer learning loss is a decrease in academic skills and knowledge over the course of the summer break from school. Without access to the enriching activities and programming available to more affluent peers, research shows that children from low-income families lose as much as three months of reading comprehension skills over the summer. By the end of fifth grade, they are nearly three grade levels behind their peers. This is a systemic problem that we aim to address by increasing and aligning summer learning programs throughout Detroit to achieve shared goals.

Our Goals:

  • Significantly impact the literacy skills and achievement of young children in Detroit
  • Build population level impact through citywide aligned literacy assessments, data sharing, evaluation, and data mapping
  • Growing literacy equity and justice in collaboration with communities and diverse partners at multiple levels

Summer Learning Table co-chairs:

  • Kim Johnson from Developing K.I.D.S.
  • Andrea Meyer from Center for Success
Attendance

Attendance

Improve regular school and out of school program attendance.

313 Reads Detroit Literacy

Chronic absence is defined as missing as many as 10 percent of school days (typically 15 or more days) during the school year for any reason. Students cannot afford to be absent during critical lessons, especially in the early years when reading instruction is a central part of the curriculum. #313Reads works arm in arm with Every School Day Counts Detroit Coalition (ESDCD) and community partners to address barriers to attendance at systemic, community, and family levels through an ecological model. 313Reads brings the collective early childhood education and programming expertise of our partners to help lead the early childhood attendance strategy of ESDCD to increase early childhood attendance, for both in school and out of school programming, and to grow the percentage of age eligible children enrolled in kindergarten.

Our Pillars Aligned with Every School Day Counts Detroit:

  • Technical Assistance with implementing attendance strategies
  • Wrap Around Services
  • Communications
  • Research
  • Advocacy

Attendance Table:

Early Literacy