Campaign for Grade-Level Reading conference comes to Philadelphia

Rachel Honore is a foot soldier in a vital campaign in Philadelphia: the drive to get all children to read on grade level by the time they reach 4th grade.

Honore is a “family navigator” for Action for Early Learning, an initiative led by Drexel University that brings together social service agencies, schools, and community members in the 19104 zip code, which includes parts of West Philadelphia. It is one of the partners in Philadelphia’s Read by 4th campaign, a three-year-old effort to promote early literacy.

As a navigator, Honore, mother of a six-year-old, mobilizes her neighbors not only to advocate for more governmental and private resources around literacy, but to model reading for their children and keep books in their homes.

“We want a reading captain on every block,” she said.

Honore was a featured panelist at a national convening of the Campaign for Grade Level Reading, where more than 700 educators, funders and policymakers descended on the Logan Hotel in Center City to reiterate the importance of and share strategies around early literacy, especially in low-income areas.