2015-16 Annual Report

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Dear Friends,

What would life be like if you struggled as a reader? This is not meant as a rhetorical question; take a moment and think about it. Where would you be? What opportunities would have been lost?

Now, imagine you are a child struggling with reading. What would school feel like? How are you going to learn when learning depends more and more on reading? What choices will be open to you? What choices will you make?

These are not idle questions. Nearly two-thirds of children in low-income schools are not reading at grade level by the end of third grade. We know that most of these children never catch up. We know they are four times less likely to graduate high school. For too many children, these questions are not merely a reflective thought experiment; they are real and must be answered.

Frederick Douglass, escaped slave turned intellectual advisor to presidents, wrote, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” The words are true today. The mere act of reading, what seems so natural to many of us, is an extraordinarily freeing act. Reading equals opportunity. Reading equals choice. Reading equals power.

To mark the power and importance of reading, CLI is launching the Reading Equals Campaign. Throughout the year, we will reach out to children and adults to ask, “What does reading equal?” CLI staff answered, “Reading equals learning. Reading equals imagination. Reading equals hope. Reading equals civil rights. Reading equals democracy. Reading equals knowledge.”

With your support, we will continue to enable children to read at grade level by third grade. In the following pages, you will read about how CLI is getting this done. What does reading equal for you?

Joel Zarrow, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer

Dear Friends of Children’s Literacy Initiative,

As we strive to educate our children, the urgency for justice and equality has never been greater. How do we level the playing field to give all children the tools they need to succeed?

Literacy is the beginning, and our youngest children deserve a solid start with outstanding teachers. Training and coaching teachers in schools for under-served children is exactly what Children’s Literacy Initiative does.

In 2016, CLI received a prestigious Invest in Innovation award from the U.S. Department of Education, enabling us to launch new partnerships with four major urban public school districts: Denver, Houston, Broward County FL and Elizabeth NJ. Along with our work in Chicago and Philadelphia, we now reach almost 50,000 children. In addition, CLI is at the forefront of serving districts with high percentages of English language learners, one of the greatest challenges facing our nation’s school system.

We also are expanding CLI’s services and support to Pre-K centers across the country. Teachers in over 125 Pre-K classrooms now have access to CLI’s Blueprint for Early Literacy that provides developmentally appropriate books and lessons to engage Pre-K children in meaningful, fun learning.

I am involved with CLI because of its commitment to provide quality early childhood education and to improve public schools in low-income neighborhoods. Literacy is vital to level the playing field.

With a track record of success, CLI works! Please join me to support it.

With thanks,

Christine S. Beck, Chairman, Board of Directors

Reading EqualsReadingEquals

Opportunity

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CLI is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization working with pre-K through 3rd grade teachers to improve instruction so children become powerful readers, writers, and thinkers.

CLI creates a sustainable, school-wide culture of literacy that introduces students to the joys of reading, writing, and life-long learning.

We coach teachers one-on-one and in small groups in the classroom – providing demonstrations and feedback that help teachers incorporate effective literacy practices into their daily work with students.

We stock classrooms with learning materials and collections of high-quality children’s literature. We also extend our services with online professional development resources.

We provide workshops & seminars to build teacher’s knowledge of literacy content and pedagogy.

By helping educators learn high-impact instructional strategies and nurture dynamic professional learning communities, CLI builds lasting capacity in teachers and principals over time.

CLI works with district partners to create sustainable organizational processes that continue the trajectory of improvement in schools. Building a teacher’s instructional expertise impacts student learning over the course of a teacher’s career.

257Schools Served

1,995Educators Served

39,378Books Distributed

41,650Students Served

The 2015/16 School Year

ReadingEquals

Learning

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i3 Scale-Up

As the single highest rated applicant and two-time award winner of the U.S. Department of Education’s Invest in Innovation program (i3), CLI launched its work to impact approximately 49,500 students in four major urban school districts: Broward County Public Schools, Denver Public Schools, Elizabeth Public Schools, and the Houston Independent Schools District.

“We’re excited about the opportunities of our CLI partnership,” said Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert W. Runcie. “Ensuring our students have the skills they need to be independent readers by third grade is vital to their overall educational success.”

As part of this $20 million five-year initiative, there will be a rigorous third party evaluation to determine impact and lessons learned. As we did in our first round of i3 funding, we have contracted with Washington D.C. based American Institutes for Research (AIR). In their 2015 evaluation, AIR concluded, “The CLI program produces substantial effects on teachers’ classroom environment and literacy practices, which in turn, lead to measurable effects on average reading achievement in early elementary grades.”

At CLI, we purposefully selected our partner districts using four criteria.

Prioritize Early Literacy Potential district partners needed to have an explicit and expressed priority focused on early literacy.

Clear Student Need Districts needed to have a large number of low-income schools with at least 59% of students receiving food subsidies.

High Concentration of English Language Learners Districts needed to have at least 10% of the student population classified as English Language Learners, exceeding the national average.

Committed District Leadership District leaders needed to express a clear interest in partnership and be willing to sign a memorandum of understanding signifying they were 100% on board with supporting each aspect of implementation.

We look forward to achieving even better results with this new i3 Scale-Up grant!

ReadingEquals

knowledge

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An Evolving Organization

ELLWe have intensified our focus on supporting English Language Leaners by identifying linguistic supports and literacy-based programmatic structures aimed at closing the achievement and literacy gaps between ELLs and their peers.

Schools are increasingly serving students who speak languages other than English. We are working with district and school partners to make sure that all students can read on grade level by 3rd grade. At CLI, we believe students’ home language is a valuable and often untapped resource. As such, we are integrating materials that support teachers and coaches, into all aspects of our work Additionally, we are developing research-based resources to support teachers who are working to create both the bilingual Spanish and biliterate student.

Early Literacy SpecialistsWhen the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) created the Anchor Goal of 100% of 8-year-olds reading on grade level, the district turned to CLI as its key partner. CLI is providing nearly 100 full time Early Literacy Specialists (ELS) to SDP.

An ELS work with a school to coach teachers and work closely with the principal to ensure students are reading on grade level. As our employees, CLI recruits, hires, trains, supports, and provides professional development to the ELS. This allows a district to leverage CLI’s extensive evidence-based expertise to improve teacher practice and student achievement.

CLI has been a terrific partner. Their expertise in early literacy and effective coaching brings the kind the support that we believe our teachers deserve.

- Diane Castelbuono, Deputy for Early Learning, School District of Philadelphia

ReadingEquals

Possibilities“

“

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LEARNLITERACY EDUCATION AND RESOURCE NETWORK

Children’s Literacy Initiative developed and launched LEARN (Literacy Education and Resource Network), a new web platform that provides the education community with a comprehensive and expanding resource to read about, watch, and discuss the best practices in balanced literacy instruction. Each content area offers users downloadable tools, like lesson plans, planning templates, checklists and guides to help implement the practices they’ve learned.

As we expand to more locations, providing access to and use of codified content and implementation knowledge becomes increasingly important. Through our i3 Validation work, we developed a great deal of the content that enabled our successful implementation across multiple sites. Through the i3 Scale-up grant, we have now organized, augmented and are ready to share this work online. CLI’s LEARN platform provides teachers, coaches, and administrators the support they need to implement effective literacy practices. LEARN not only benefits the more than 400 educators annually participating in the i3 Scale-up Project, but also is freely accessible to the public.

LEARN’s content focuses on the core instructional practices identified by the National Reading Panel and validated through our prior implementation: Guided Reading, Intentional Read Aloud, Shared Reading & Guided Writing (MTP), Reader’s Workshop and Writer’s Workshop. In addition, LEARN provides content about Classroom Culture & Environment, Independent Work Time, and Literacy Coaching.

By making our knowledge freely available through LEARN we can support positive changes in balanced literacy instruction throughout the nation.

http://learn.cli.org

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Teacher & Student Impact

Our most significant accomplishment may be raising the expectations for what 4 to 8 year-old students from high-poverty neighborhoods are capable of achieving. Our work has countered the myth that children from disadvantaged households have too many obstacles to overcome to reach the literacy levels of their more privileged peers. Instead, we have demonstrated that when instruction is expert, the vast majority of children will learn to read.

“I have also seen my students’ overall interest in both reading and writing increase over the course of the year.” - CLI trained teacher in Philadelphia.

“I have seen several of my students go from struggling with reading to almost on level. I have seen my whole class grow to be lovers of reading and build their stamina for independent reading to well over 20 minutes. When we started, their stamina was barely 5 minutes!”- CLI trained teacher.

In Pennsylvania, the PSSA is administered to all 3rd grade students to assess various skills, including reading level. For three years, CLI delivered comprehensive services (coaching, trainings, and materials) to teachers in a subset of 9 School District of Philadelphia (SDP) schools. A group of 10 comparison schools did not receive these services. PSSA results showed:

• The average PSSA score of 3rd grade students in CLI-served schools was nearly 40 points higher than for students in comparison schools!

• A greater percentage of 3rd grade students in CLI-served schools met PSSA proficiency standards (46%) than 3rd grade students in comparison schools (37%)

• CLI-served schools outperformed SDP comparison schools by 9% and outperformed similar schools from across the state by 6%.

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ReadingEquals

Creativity

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Supporters

Philanthropic contribu-tions to CLI take many forms and we deeply appreciate each gift.

$1,000,000 or moreTarget

$500,000 to $999,999Steans Family Fdn. U.S. Department of Education The William Penn Fdn.

$100,000 to $499,999Anonymous Anonymous Allen H. & Selma E. Berkman Charitable Trust Drexel University W.K. Kellogg Fdn. Polk Bros. Fdn., Inc.

$50,000 to $99,999Anonymous The Capital Group Companies Chicago Tribune—Holiday Campaign, a McCormick Fdn. Fund Connelly Fdn. Daniels Fund Denver Fdn. Farber Family Fdn., Inc. Otto Haas Charitable Trust Hamilton Family Fdn. Joel and Sharon Kop-pelman The Pew Charitable Trusts Piton Fdn. The Selander Fdn. Wells Fargo Fdn.

$25,000 to $49,999Samuel S. Fels Fund Governor Woods Fdn. Estate of Jules Hirsch Vertex, Inc.

$10,000 to $24,999The Donley Fdn. Richard Gluck Jeanne & Dov Haselkorn Holman Automotive Group, Inc.

T & T Lundgren Fund Lawrence J. & Anne Rubenstein Charitable Fdn. Subaru of America Fdn., Inc. Vert Charitable Trust Bradley & Katherine Vogt

$1,000 to $9,999The 25th Century Fdn. Anonymous Anonymous Christine & Leif Beck Breckinridge Capital Advisors David & Jennifer Bloom Brodart Company William & Sylvia Cohen Family Fund A. Bruce Crawley Larry & Lois Curry Eden Charitable Fdn. Allison Gruneich Shelley & Steven Harris Hess Fdn., Inc. Illinois Tool Works Fdn. Investors Fdn. William Josem Kinder Morgan Lakeshore Legg Mason Charitable Fdn. Christian R. & Mary F. Lindback Fdn. M & T Charitable Fdn. The McAlaine Family Fdn. Merck Company Fdn. M. Aileen Morningstar Gerald Mosely Mostafa Family Charita-ble Lead Trust PLUS Fdn. Praxis Consulting Group, Inc. Victoria Raivitch Caroline J. Sanders Charitable Trust II Santander Bank FAO Schwarz Family Fdn. Susan & Tom Smith Adam Spector

Swarthmore Presbyteri-an Church TisBest Philanthropy The TJX Fdn., Inc. B & N Trugman Charita-ble Trust UGI Utilities, Inc. United Way Portland Kate Wilson Karen Young

$500 to $999Jeffrey Birenbaum Robert & Sarah Boser William Brophy Mr. & Mrs. James M. Buck III Michael Criss Martin Cuellar Scott Dickinson Michael Fioravanti Jaymi & Joe Formaggio Katherine Giordano David Goldberg Timothy Howard IBM Employee Services Center Julie & Richard Jaffe James E. Jeter, Jr. Pamela MacDonald Elizabeth Pilacik Ralph Smith Sandy St. George Claire Steinberg Robin Toblin Dylan Wall Anthony White Joel Zarrow & Helen Nadel ZPR Family Fdn., Inc.

$100 to $499Ascensus Julie Barber-Rotenberg Linda Becker Benevity Community Impact Fund Deborah L. Bilder & Lee S. Serota Peter & Marcia Bloom Shiri Bogomolny Dennis Bonanni Mary Brieser Richard Buchanan Ceridian Donation Judith Cromwell Lawrence Cryer

Carol Dawe Paul Demmy David Detora Dropbox, Inc. Richard Dusenbery Jeffrey Dwoskin Kyle Eckenroad Gary Every William Farneth & Ellen Baer Robert E. Fish Katheryn Ford Keith E. Frederickson Daniel & Roxanne Friedman Robert Frieland Goldman, Sachs & Co. Matching Gift Program Daniel Goveas Nina Grier Mary & Alvin Gutman Fund Roger Guttentag Caryn Henning Stephanie Holeman Katherine Hovde Johnson & Johnson Charlie Keiper Christina Kelerchian Mary & Justin Klein Kenneth Kunz Mr. Jeff & Mrs. Agnes Landau Carrick Larimer Kimberly Leichtner Barry Letts Martha Lipshitz Marc I. Lowe Christine MacDonald Carl Martin Laurie Matthews Robert McAlaine Rachel McCaskill Elizabeth Monkus Bob Moul Viginia & William Nadel Jody Anne Northrop Cathy Ostaszewski Katherine Parks Thomas Peck Pennsylvania Lumber-mens Mutual Insurance Co Pfizer Fdn. Matching Gifts Program Jacqueline Pippin

Douglas Raihall Wendy Reed Michelle Revelle Jamal Rorie Travis Russell Sarah Seals Cathleen Shircliff Joe Starnes Abigail Thaker Thomson Reuters Waters Corporation William Rogers Timothy & Kathy Wilson Benjamin Yeung Stefan Zajic Andrew Zodda

$99 and underMarjorie Albrecht Nicole Anderson Janet Brody Jonathan Burditt Alex Campbell Christine Mary Cayer Peter Chambers Natalie Cowart Ronald Cubbage Elizabeth DeFors Jeffrey Dobrinsky Jon Edwards Janet Erwin Raul Estevez Sardina Chris Etheredge Jo Anna Fecker Herbert Fillmore Eva Finney Nelson Flores Aaron Forsander Natalie & Neil Franke Carol Front Patricia Frustace Janet Fryer Glenn Fuir Stephen Gillette Lauren Gutierrez Christina Haas Karen Halfmann Maureen Hall April Hersey Jones Sign Co. Kenneth Klein Nancy Kleinberg Lori Klose Allie Kossoy Angela Kuhlmann Jim Laginess

Lyndsay Lehner Debra Lester Linda Levin David Lewin Sarah Lorraine Michael Maciaszek Beverly Mackaman Lise Martin Patrice McInaw Linda McMahon Rachel Mills Gina Morgan William Morris Lois R. Morris Patricia Murin Natasha Osborne Anne Perry Tom Petri Martha Potter David Proch Alessandro Reale Robert Reilly Constance Richard Daniel Rinehart Caroline Riordan Tamera Rizk Teresa Rizky Kat Rosqueta Mary Rudderow Eric Ryckman Robert & Judith Schachner Julie Schwartz Barbara Sorensen-Jetters Joanne Stein Kenneth Topping Victor Torres Jason Traub James Ward Teresa Watkins Eileen Wilkie Heather Woodward Christina Zeiders

In-Kind Contributions American Airlines

For more information on supporting CLI, please contact Director of External Relations: Jen Weikert 215-561-4647 xtn:129 jweikert@cli.org.

ReadingEquals

Understanding

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Name Board Title Position Employer

A. Bruce Crawley President Millennium 3 Management Inc.

Adam Spector Managing Partner Brandywine Global Investment Management, LLC

Bonnie Greenberg Retired Educator

Carla P. Maresca Partner Deasey, Mahoney & Valentini, Ltd.

Christine S. Beck Chairperson Child Advocate

David J. Bloom Secretary Managing Director Wilmington Trust Company

Elizabeth Pilacik Director, Nonprofit Services BDO USA, LLP

Gerald Mosely President CP&P Development, LLC

Julie Jaffe Retired Educator School District of Philadelphia

Kate Wilson Vice-ChairVice President of Brand Marketing

First Aid Shot Therapy

Nelson Flores Assistant Professor University of Pennsylvania

Nina GrierProduct Management – Senior Manager

Independence Blue Cross

Susan B. Smith Retired Executive Director Devereux’s Kanner Center

Victoria Raivitch Treasurer Principal CliftonLarsonAllen LLP

Judy McHugh Talent Development Executive The Linde Group

Richard Berkman Of Counsel Dechert LLP

Mary Klein Retired Educator

Philip Cowen Managing Director Wells Fargo Advisors LLC

Joel Zarrow Chief Executive Officer Children’s Literacy Initiative

Board of DirectorsReading

EqualsHope

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Ajuba, Ifeoma: Director of Operations

Ajuba, Obinna: Project Coordinator

Ali, Aliyah: Project Associate

Allen, Mia: Director of ELL & Bilingual Services

Amado, Allie: External Relations Coordinator

Aquino, Gilbert: Resource Coordinator

Caponiti, Teresa: Project Manager

Cerabino, Francesca: Literacy Manager

Coulombe, Michele: Content Development Manager

Davis, Sade: Project Manager

Dipaolo, Alison: External Relations Writer

Di Leone, Brooke: Research & Evaluation Manager

Donahue, Denise: Payroll & Accounts Payable Coordinator

Dores, Danielle: Project Associate

Echenhofer, George: Senior Technology Manager

Federman, Pat: Co-Founder & Lead Regional Manager

Folkman, Claire: Executive Coordinator

Gabriel, Nicole: Project & Events Coordinator

Gandolfo, Patricia: Assoc. Regional Manager

Garofola, Beth Ann: Literacy Supervisor

Grossman, Frank: Chief Academic Officer

Henning, Caryn: Director of Program Design & Professional Development

Hill, Erin: Literacy Supervisor

Howell, Jessica: Project Accounting & Analytics Manager

Jones, Michael: Director of Marketing

Kasher, Jacqueline: Assoc. Regional Manager

Koenen, Sarah: Regional Manager

Kretschman, Christopher: Accounting Manager

LaCoursiere, Michele: Regional Manager

Lazrow, Sara: Content Development Manager

Lineberger, Michelle: Project Coordinator

List, Mary: Regional Executive Director

Loder, Julya: Operations Coordinator

Longstreth, Galen: Content Development & Book Collections Specialist

Melusky, Stanley: Production Manager

Molinari-Schiano, Gina: Assoc. Regional Manager

Mueller, Claire: Regional Manager

Mumford, Amelia: Content Production Coordinator

Nyame-Kusi, Kwame: Project/Finance Coordinator

Owen, Jordanne: Assoc. Director of Program Design & Professional Development

Parker, Claire: Assoc. Regional Manager

Pedrick, Jen: Literacy Supervisor

Phillips, Kelly: Project Manager

Pinkerton, Janet: External Relations Manager

Quiroz, Sarah: Project Associate

Roberts, Cynthia: Director of Finance & Facilities

Robinson, Marcus: Research Assistant

Rudofker, Ted: Assistant Production Manager

Sharp, Donna: Literacy Manager

Smith, Betsy: Project Associate

Soroka, Christine: Project Manager

Stacy, Jaclyn: External Relations Manager

Stube, Kristina: Project Associate

Sudia, Douglas: Office & IT Coordinator

Sullivan, Tiffany: Human Resources Assistant

Tchinnis, Olivia: Project Associate

Thomas, Jen: Pre-K Supervisor

Valunas, Jill: Regional Executive Director

Weikert, Jen: Director of External Relations

Weldon, Sharon: Regional Manager

Wherrity, Meghan: HR Manager

Wildonger, Samantha: Systems Analyst

Zarrow, Joel: Chief Executive Officer

Staff

ReadingEquals

Ambition

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Revenue

Private Philanthropy $5,450,159

Government $653,836

School District Contracts $8,389,417

Investment Income $(4,714)

Total Revenue $14,488,698

Expenses

Program $10,944,435

Administrative $1,106,363

Fundraising $855,373

Total Expenses $12,906,171

With only 15% of expenses going to administration and fundraising costs, 85% of all expenses were dedicated solely to CLI programming.

Children’s Literacy Initiative’s sound fiscal management practices and commitment to accountability and transparency have earned it a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent charity evaluator. This is the 4th consecutive time Children’s Literacy Initiative has earned this top distinction.

Fiscal YearReading

EqualsCivil Rights

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Partners in Literacy

Since 1992, Madeleine Glowienka has worked as a teacher. Currently, she is a 1st grade teacher at Anna L. Lingelbach School in Philadelphia. CLI asked Madeleine about her experiences and expectations partnering with CLI.

What were your initial expectations about CLI?

I had few—basically I was unsure how it could/would really make a difference. I had taught such an assortment of programs—from basal readers, to whole language, to a company literacy series. Each time it felt as though we were reinventing the wheel, AGAIN!

How did you feel about CLI after receiving professional development services from them?

I truly felt empowered and excited that there was finally a way to teach all our children to love reading and writing.

Have CLI’s trainings, one-on-one, and small group coaching transformed your literacy instruction?

It has made all the difference from the very beginning. Even as a “seasoned teacher,” there was much I had to learn and practice to make all the parts fit together. Through the trainings and coaching, I can honestly say I am able to teach ALL the students in my classroom at their starting place and make an incredible difference in their growth throughout the course of a year.

CLI’s goal is to create a “sustainable, school-wide culture of literacy that introduces students to the joys of reading, writing, and life-long reading.” How have you seen this develop in your classroom?

Through CLI best practices, we have become a community of learners that grow together. My students love to sit together, read their favorite books, and share their thoughts. In Writer’s Workshop, the dialogue is amazing as my students learn to listen and help each other work out an idea. If we miss any part of our literacy block, my children are actually disappointed!

How has your use of CLI best practices helped your students’ learning improve? What changes have you seen due to your use of CLI practices?

So many students are reading chapter books and writing “books” by the end of first grade. Each child in my room succeeds because we all know we are a family of learners. I reflect on my teaching throughout the day, and my students reflect on their learnings. We are not “learning to read” or “learning to write.” We ARE readers, and we ARE writers! CLI best practices ensure that our classroom is a dynamic literacy environment.

What is your literacy goal for yourself and your students during the 2016-2017 school year?

Although we had an “author’s tea” last year, I would like to involve our families even more in our literacy community as often as possible.

ReadingEquals

Partnership

Reading GraduationReading DiscoveryReading WisdomReading FamilyReading InspirationReading funReading respectReading Adventure

Reading AwarenessReading InventionReading dreamingReading relaxationReading historyReading resourcesReading scienceReading Liberty

Children’s Literacy Initiative2314 Market StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19103

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