ldunbar@nul.org

Andrea Wilson, 212-343-4563

Cell: 917-653-2746

awilson@scholastic.com

Judy Corman, 212-343-6833

jcorman@scholastic.com

U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION ROD PAIGE,

NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE AND SCHOLASTIC UNVEIL

READ & RISE, A FREE GUIDE TO EARLY LITERACY

Churches and Local Businesses to Assist in Distribution;

African American Community Newspapers to Serialize Content

Innovative Grassroots Community Mobilization Effort to Help

Build Reading Skills of African American Children

Washington, DC, July 31, 2001–The National Urban League and Scholastic Inc., the global children’s media and publishing company, today announced a partnership aimed at helping to build the reading skills of African American children through a powerful grassroots community mobilization effort. Scholastic and the National Urban League created Read & Rise: Preparing Our Children for a Lifetime of Success, a guide to fostering children’s literacy and reading skills.

Scholastic will provide 250,000 copies of Read and Rise to the League, which will distribute them free to parents and caregivers through local businesses, churches and other organizations in communities nationwide where the League’s more than 100 affiliates operate.

Scholastic will also distribute the guide free to parents and caregivers through other organizations including the National PTA, which will make the guide available to its membership.

The announcement was made this morning at the 2001 National Urban League Conference in Washington, DC by U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, National Urban League President Hugh B. Price, and Scholastic Chairman, President and CEO Dick Robinson.

Read and Rise will feature practical tips on how parents and caregivers can help their children become successful readers. In addition, the guide contains information on the common reading and literacy behaviors of children from birth to age 9, along with desired reading and literacy benchmarks by age and grade, and recommended book selections for different ages and grade levels.

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Pg. 2/Sec. of Education Rod Paige, National Urban League, Scholastic Unveil Read and Rise

Read and Rise will be distributed during the back-to-school season in September, which

the League designates as (academic) Achievement Month.

Also assisting in distributing the guides will be the National Baptist Convention, the largest African American religious organization in the nation. The organization will make the guides available to its network of churches, comprised of several million members nationwide.

To help spread the word about the availability of the Read and Rise guide, the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a trade association comprised of more than 200 African American-owned newspapers nationwide, representing a weekly readership of more than two million, will feature excerpts in its member papers throughout the month of September. The excerpts will run in conjunction with a special series of stories focusing on early literacy.

"The National Assessment for Educational Progress, the nation’s report card, showed again this year that African American children are bringing up the rear when it comes to reading. Fully 63 percent of black children read ‘below basic’ in the fourth grade," National Urban League president Hugh B. Price said.

"If they begin at such a disadvantage, it is unlikely they will ever catch up. And in today’s ‘Information Economy,’ that is more than tragic, it is a crisis that must be answered, he continued.

"The League and Scholastic are pleased to have partners such as the National Baptist Convention and the National Newspaper Publishers Association assist us in this important call-to-action."

"Significant change often comes through grassroots efforts. When parents and communities are equipped with information and tools through resources such as Read and Rise, there’s no limit to what our children can achieve," said Dick Robinson, Scholastic Chairman, President and CEO.

"In this effort to improve children’s reading, we are proud to partner with the National Urban League, which has such a longstanding history of working for economic and social empowerment of African Americans from within the community itself. The League is to be applauded for focusing on literacy and issuing a call to action."

To help increase availability of the guide, both Scholastic and the League plan to offer it as a free downloadable PDF file on their Web sites beginning in September, at www.scholastic.com/readandrise, or www.nul.org/readandrise. Scholastic will also distribute Read and Rise through Voices, the Scholastic Book Club offering the best books celebrating African American kids.

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Pg. 3/Sec. of Education Rod Paige, National Urban League, Scholastic Unveil Read and Rise

Scholastic (Nasdaq: SCHL) is the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books. A global children’s publishing and media company serving the needs of parents, teachers, and children, Scholastic provides proprietary book and software distribution through school book clubs, school book fairs and to classrooms, as well as through the retail trade. Since 1920, Scholastic has created quality educational materials for schools and has expanded its reach to include the distribution of books, software, toys, online learning services and television programming directly to the home. Scholastic recently acquired Grolier, the leading print and online publisher of children’s reference materials and the leader in children’s direct to home book clubs. Internationally, Scholastic operates wholly owned companies in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United Kingdom. The U.S. Scholastic web site //www.scholastic.com is a leading provider of educational services online for parents, teachers and children.

The National Newspaper Publishers Association is a trade association founded in 1940 to bring together publishers of African-American-owned newspapers toward the advancement of their mutual interests and professional concerns. For over a half-century the NNPA has been the voice of The Black Press across America, serving the media interests of Black Americans. From Capitol Hill to the halls of corporate America, the NNPA has worked in the interests of its members and its readers. More information is available at www.nnpa.org .

The National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., one of the oldest African American organizations in the nation, shapes the religious and often political beliefs of several million Christians throughout the world. The Mission of the National Baptist Convention, USA. Inc. is to promote home and foreign missions, encourage and support Christian education, publish and distribute Sunday School and religious literature, and engage in other Christian endeavors that may be required to advance the work of Christ throughout the world.

The Urban League is the nation’s oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream. The National Urban League, headquartered in New York City, spearheads the nonprofit, nonpartisan movement, while Urban League affiliates operate in more than 100 cities in 34 states and the District of Columbia.

Facts & Figures on Reading and Literacy

2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress, The Nation’s Report Card

• In 2000, the percentage of 4^th graders performing at or above thebasic level of reading achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), The Nation’s Report Card, was 63 percent. Performance at or above theproficient level -- the level identified as the level that all students should reach -- was achieved by 32 percent of fourth graders.

• 63 percent of African American 4^th graders performed at the basic level or below on the 2000 NAEP.

• Fourth graders in central city schools had a lower average score in 2000 than their peers who attended schools in urban fringe/large town and rural/small town locations.

Impact of Low Literacy and Reading Proficiency

• 43 percent of people with the lowest literacy skills live in poverty. 17 percent receive food stamps, and 70 percent have no job or a part-time job. (Source: National Institute for Literacy)

• Data from 1998-99 shows that in schools attended by the average black and Latino students, 39.3 percent and 44 percent of the students are poor, respectively. Poverty levels are strongly related to school test scores averages and many kinds of educational inequality. (Source: The Civil Rights Project of Harvard University, 2001 study: School Segregation on the Rise Despite Growing Diversity Among School-Aged Children)

The Importance of Starting Early

• The window of opportunity for brain development is greater when children are younger. The first 48 months of life are critical. Brain infrastructure is developed by age 4. (Source: Jensen, Teaching with the Brain in Mind)

Parents Can Help to Raise a Good Reader

• Students who reported reading 11 or more pages per day scored higher on the 2000 NAEP than students who reported reading fewer pages daily. Fourth graders who reported reading for fun every day achieved the highest average score. (Source: 2000 NAEP)

• The more types of reading materials there are in the home, the higher students are in reading proficiency. (Source: Educational Testing Service. America’s Smallest School: The Family, 1999)

• Students who do more reading at home are better readers and have higher math scores. (Source: Educational Testing Service. America’s Smallest School: The Family, 1999)