National Urban League

(212)558-5438

James A. Harris
Office of Congressman Ed Towns (NY-10)
202-225-5936

New York, NY, March 1, 2002–To discuss how to promote literacy through a partnership between the clergy, local officials and the National Urban League, Congressman Edolphus "Ed" Towns (D-Brooklyn) recently co-hosted an ecumenical breakfast with Congressman Major Owens (D-Brooklyn) and Hugh Price, president of the National Urban League, at Berean Missionary Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY.

Pastors from all over Brooklyn representing different faiths joined them to discuss the League’s Read & Rise literacy effort, which is carried out through Urban League affiliates and the League’s Campaign for African American Achievement, a community mobilization and advocacy initiative created to raise the achievement levels and strengthen the social skills of African-American and other youth of color.

Central to Read & Rise is a guide to literacy, Read & Rise: Preparing Your Children for a Lifetime of Success.

The guide features practical tips on how parents and caregivers can help their children become successful readers, including information on the common reading and literacy behaviors of children from birth to age 9, desired reading and literacy benchmarks by age and grade, and recommended book selections for different ages and grade levels.

Produced by Scholastic, Inc., the guides are available free to parents and caregivers, and more than 200,000 have been distributed through Urban League affiliates and local businesses in Urban League communities, the National PTA, and on the Scholastic and Urban League web sites at www.scholastic.com/readandrise, and www.nul.org/readandrise.

Each pastor received a supply of copies of Read & Rise to distribute to their parishioners to promote literacy throughout their congregations. They also received a copy of Read & Rise: How the Faith Community Can Improve Early Literacy, a companion guide that advises how members of the clergy can form Read & Rise literacy networks in their communities.

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"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," 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.

Our community’s ministers wield powerful influence and reach, and the group assembled here today should be commended for stepping up to assist us in this important call-to-action."