STATE MANDATORY EDUCATION

Reading Is Fundamental (RIF):

• Provides three free books each year to participating students to create a home library of their own; and.

• Develops fun activities to encourage reading as a worthy pastime for the children.

Each year ReadBoston gives three books to over 15,000 students within the Boston schools through the RIF program.

The After-School Project integrates literacy into the Boston schools’ after-school programs. Literacy specialists promote literacy instruction by providing literacy training, advice and books to increase literacy instruction and reading within the after-school arena.

• Families And Books reach children during the off-school summer months, using two Storymobiles that visit 40 neighborhood sites each week during July and August. Each Storymobile provide fun storytellings for children, who also can take books to read at home. The two Storymobiles together carry over 10,000 books that may be checked out by the children.
• In addition to the involvement of the Boston schools, a wide array of community members have joined the ReadBoston campaign — foundations, corporations, community groups, and individuals. They provide both funding and volunteerism. The community-sponsored book drives have garnered over 500,000 new books for the ReadBoston program, and over 1,700 tutors volunteer each week to help children learn to read — working in the childcare centers, the Boston schools classrooms, and the after-school programs. Boston and its community are serious about literacy for the city’s children.
• Literacy is a problem across the nation; and with the influx of many poorly educated immigrants, the problem is only getting worse. The city of Boston has done something about it, and partners with the Boston schools for one phase of its implementation.
• In 1995, Mayor Thomas M. Menino founded the ReadBoston project to address the low literacy levels of the city’s youth. The project’s goal is to have all children in Boston schools reading on grade level by the completion of third grade.

ReadBoston targets children both before they enter Boston schools kindergarten and throughout elementary school. After school programs and summer activities extend the campaign to ensure Boston’s youth can read.

• Preschool Years.

Before entering the Boston schools, ReadBoston partners with childcare centers, providing materials and training to help the centers establish and encourage home reading programs for the children who attend the centers. They also work with daycare teachers to improve their literacy teaching skills.