Home  ALSC  Every Child Ready to Read

a joint project of the Public Library Association and the Association for Library Service to Children

Introduction

Current research on early literacy and brain development indicates that it is never too early to prepare children for success as readers. Parents of newborns, toddlers and preschoolers must be informed of their critical role as their children's first teacher.

The Public Library Association and the Association for Library Service to Children, have incorporated the latest research into a series of parent and caregiver workshops to provide public libraries with vital tools to help prepare parents for their critical role as their child's first teacher. These tools were developed by Dr. Grover C. Whitehurst and Dr. Christopher Lonigan, well-known researchers in emergent literacy, and have been tested and refined by library demonstrations sites around the country.

We look to library systems big and small to play a key role in their communities in disseminating early literacy information to parents, child care providers, early childhood educators, children’s advocates, and political decision makers.

These parent and caregiver resources and supplementary workshops will enable you to initiate new early literacy services or to enhance ones you already have. Become a partner in Every Child Ready to Read @ your library.®

Customized Brochures

On occassion, orders for customized Every Child Ready To Read® brochures are accepted for a limited time.  Because of the large quantity being ordered, special pricing allows you to purchase brochures at a substantial savings.  Your library's logo, address, phone number and web address will be imprinted on the back panel of each brochure.  Please contact pla@ala.org for further information.

2008 - 2009 Evaluation

The ECRR initiative recently went through a comprehensive evaluation to evaluate the impact the ECRR initiative has had on public library practice; evaluate the extent to which the ECRR initiative has been institutionalized and leveraged in public libraries; conduct a research/literature review to identify key research, information and practice in the area of early literacy relevant to the ECRR initiative; and recommend next steps for the ECRR initiative.

The ECRR Evaluation Task Force presented their final report to the ALSC and PLA Boards during the 2009 Annual Conference.  Both Boards unanimously approved the recommendations of the task force, including funding to revise the ECRR curriculum.  The Task Force has already started work on curriculum revision.  The exact timeframe for release of the new curriculum is not known at this time.  When known, the information will be put on the ECRR Web site. 

Wiki

Share your Every Child Ready to Read stories and successes on the ECRR Wiki!

Training workshops

The ECRR toolkit was developed as a turnkey program and is available for sale to public libraries.  The toolkit includes all the necessary tools, materials and resources to present the three phases of parent/caregiver education workshops.  In addition, a group of authorized trainers are available to public libraries to provide training on the toolkit and the implementation of the parent/caregiver parent education workshops within public libraries. 

You can book an official ECRR trainer to present a workshop at your library by directly contacting a trainer.

For further information, email Aimee Strittmatter (ALSC) at astrittmatter@ala.org or PLA at pla@ala.org.