Early Childhood Education in Arizona and Florida

Reading Success Matters

In 1966, New Zealand researcher Marie Clay introduced the term emergent literacy to describe the behaviors seen in young children when they use books and writing materials to imitate reading and writing activities, even though the children cannot actually read and write in the conventional sense (Ramsburg, 1998).

According to current research, children's literacy development begins long before children start formal instruction in elementary school and is nourished by social interactions with caring adults and exposure to literacy materials, such as children's storybooks (Sulzby, 1991).

Emergent literacy proceeds along a continuum, and children acquire literacy skills in a variety of ways and at different ages (McGee & Richgels, 1996; Ramsburg, 1998; Strickland & Morrow, 1988).

Florida and Arizona have both signed onto The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. This initiative will provide the state of Arizona and cities within Florida with the opportunity to elevate the dialogue about the importance of early childhood education, especially around the topics of language acquisition and emergent literacy. Community leaders, stakeholders, and professionals from Arizona and Florida will convene regularly to discuss strategies for alignment of programs, projects, and outcomes that will lead to an integrated approach for addressing topics such as school readiness, chronic absenteeism, and summer learning loss that are known to contribute to a child's struggle to read at grade level.

Educators, community leaders, philanthropic organizations and other stakeholders throughout Arizona and Florida are excited about the opportunity provided by The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading to build upon the work already underway in our states. We are hopeful that our combined efforts will make our states and our cities strong contenders for the All-American City Grade-Level Reading Award in March 2012.