BLUEPRINT for EARLY CHILDHOOD SUCCESS SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

BLUEPRINT for EARLY CHILDHOOD SUCCESS SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We wish to thank Leadership Tennessee for their vital role in facilitating the Nashville Literacy Collaborative Working Group and Lipscomb University for providing key local and national research to inform the direction of the group. We also wish to thank Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, the Metro Health Department, and local, nonprofit partners who participated in the Community Inventory as well as provided research and data. This report would not have been possible without these critical community partners. Fellow Nashvillians, There are moments in a city’s history when an issue becomes so urgent that it mandates a deeply different, “third-way” approach. Nashville’s struggle around third-grade reading proficiency is one of those issues. We know that, when a child misses this early milestone, their chances of success are dramatically curtailed. They are twice as likely to drop out of school, half as likely to go to college. That puts them on a downward spiral that leads to substantially increased instances of discipline issues and, ultimately, annual earnings half that of their peers. The impact that can have on a city like Nashville is exponential, not to speak of the devastating effect it can have on children and families. And yet, despite those facts, we have struggled mightily to post meaningful improvements over the last 25 years. But today, we turn the page to a new chapter with deep resolve to join forces as a city to put Nashville on a vastly different trajectory. What you will find on the subsequent pages is a herculean effort by a 22-member Working Group we co-convened. It is a bold, ambitious plan. It has clear, measurable outcomes. It was not the work of one group, but the collective work of many who agreed to set aside their own preconceived notions and existing programming investments to think bigger, dig deeper and come up with a more effective blueprint for accelerated action. In total, more than 1,600 hours were invested over a six-month period involving 200-plus community leaders and 30-plus national experts. We are energized by their findings and are committed to doing our part to help implement their recommendations. We hope you will be, as well. Nashville has a long history of beating the odds – of doing the unimaginable, achieving what no one else thought was possible. For the sake of our city’s future and our own, let’s roll up our sleeves and make this happen! Sincerely, Megan Barry Kent Oliver Mayor of Nashville Director, Nashville Public Library Dr. Shawn Joseph Shannon Hunt Director of Schools President and CEO, Nashville Public Education Foundation TABLE of CONTENTS A Community Commitment............................................................................................................................7 Key Findings.......................................................................................................................................................11 Recommendations To Guide Community Efforts and Investment Priorities.........................................35 Implementation Framework..........................................................................................................................65 Appendix 1: Lipscomb Community Inventory and Best Practices Research........................................72 Appendix 2: Roundup of Evidence-Based Research.................................................................................88 Appendix 3: Mayor Megan Barry’s Early Childhood Education Working Group Report.................97 Appendix 4: Community Engagement Summary.....................................................................................147 Appendix 5: Demographic Mapping Data.................................................................................................150 A COMMUNITY COMMITMENT A COMMUNITY COMMITMENT Sometimes the toughest of issues seems hopeless and unsolvable until we force ourselves to look at it through a different lens. The Nashville Literacy Collaborative was born out of a deep desire to do just that – to force ourselves to think about the city’s long-term difficulty moving the needle on early literacy from a different perspective. We were determined to get outside of what we knew and be open to what we might be missing. There was a willingness and desire to untether ourselves from discussions about how we do what we’ve been doing better and instead reimagine what we should be doing. And we worked hard to think about ways to better leverage existing successes but be smarter about how to better align resources and talent to get stronger results for the children of Nashville. This report is the first step in that direction. To create this report, an investment of 1,600-plus hours of research and work has been made over a six-month period involving 200-plus community leaders and 30-plus national experts. We inventoried and collected data on existing early literacy efforts across the city, analyzing that data to identify gaps and deficiencies. We dug into state and local data about proficiency as well as demographic trends in the county that could affect proficiency. We surveyed schools about on- the-ground challenges, needs and perceptions. We visited classrooms to understand what literacy instruction looks like today and met with MNPS leaders to understand their vision for how that needed to change and improve. We asked community partners active in the space to weigh in with their ideas, questions and concerns. We poured through evidence-based research from around the country to understand what has shown the most promising results in other communities and spoke at length with leaders in cities seen as doing the most innovative or impactful work. The result of all this work is the Blueprint for Early Childhood Success. By recommending this integrated, citywide framework for literacy, we are each committing to a shared outcome of doubling the number of third-graders who read on grade level by the year 2025. By no means should we stop with third grade, but we are unified in the view that we must start with a dramatic and immediate improvement on this first milestone and build from there. Moreover, as you will see on the subsequent pages, we not only have coalesced around a shared outcome but also a shared set of metrics to evaluate success and shared implementation framework, which is outlined on the subsequent pages. We are pledging our commitment to seeing that idea through with the creation of a best-in-class data analytics and evaluation system that enables everyone to better align to tangible, measurable results for kids. We are also each committing to do our part to accelerate this work. The truth is, Nashville is facing an early literacy emergency. For 25-plus years, we have allowed the majority of our young people to miss this critical early milestone. That cannot be the Nashville way. We are better than that as a city, and quite frankly, the long-term success of our community is inextricably tied to our doing better on this score. As a result, we are each pledging to step up and do our part in advancing this effort. We are asking others in the community to join us in making this “pledge” to the community. Nonprofits can pledge that early childhood efforts will be a top programmatic priority. Businesses can pledge to support these efforts as part of their corporate social responsibility and community investment priorities. Civic leaders, faith leaders and neighborhood leaders can pledge their time 8 and emphasis. Philanthropic organizations can pledge financial support and expertise. And all Nashvillians can pledge to volunteer their time and support to help our youngest Nashvillians succeed. We all have a part to play, but we must make third-grade reading a far greater individual, organizational and community priority. Finally, we are committing to publicly reporting on progress against each of these recommendations annually. We don’t want these recommendations to collect dust on a bookshelf, but rather for everyone involved to have every incentive to deliver on them. As such, we will work with the Nashville Literacy Collaborative Steering Committee being formed to report out to the community and stakeholders every year where things stand with each and every recommendation as well as the overall work and progress related to literacy outcomes. We are hopeful this collective, results-oriented approach will represent a seismic change in the way we look at this issue, the manner in which we work together to solve it, and the willingness of the public and private sectors to hold each other mutually accountable for results for children. Together, Nashville is capable of doing something extraordinary to help the children in our community and, in turn, ensure Nashville’s long-term success and viability. Join us in pledging to ensure Nashville’s youngest citizens reach this first major milestone that puts them on a trajectory for long-term success. Sincerely, Angie Adams, PENCIL Rae Finnie, MNPS Lead Literacy Teacher Laura Moore, Mayor Megan Barry’s Office Development Specialist Elyse Adler, Nashville Public Library Kent Oliver, Nashville Public Library Marc Hill, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce Harry Allen, Studio Bank (In Organization) Tara Scarlett, Scarlett Family Foundation Tari Hughes, Center for Nonprofit Management Shawn Bakker, Nashville Public Library Foundation Renata Soto, Conexión Américas Shannon Hunt, Nashville Public Education Foundation

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