HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION SUMMIT SLATED FOR OCT. 22

At 9:00 a.m., Thursday, October 22, 2009 at the Doubletree Hotel in Tampa, local business executives, educators, community impact organizations and government leaders will meet at Graduation Pathway. Participants will learn how to positively influence high school graduation rates in Hillsborough County.

Convened by the Children’s Board, the City of Tampa, Hillsborough County Public Schools and United Way of Tampa Bay, Graduation Pathway offers area business leaders critical information to keep teens focused and graduating from high school.

Graduation Pathway addresses the issue as a community-wide challenge, not just that of schools or parents, and is designed for CEOs, COOs, senior executives, entrepreneurs and human resource directors.

Dr. Bill R. Daggett, president of the International Center for Leadership in Education, is the keynote speaker. His presentation,  The New 3 R’s: Rigor, Relevance and Relationships focuses on the impact of high school graduation on the future Tampa Bay workforce.

Dr. Daggett has also collaborated with education groups in several countries, the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Governors’ Association, and other national organizations.  He is recognized worldwide for his proven ability to move education systems toward more rigorous and relevant skills and knowledge for students. He has assisted several states and hundreds of school districts, including Hillsborough, with their school improvement initiatives, many in response to No Child Left Behind and its demanding adequate yearly progress provisions.

Also presenting is MaryEllen Elia, superintendent of Hillsborough County Public Schools, the eighth largest school district in the United States with more than 189,000 students and almost 26,000 full-time employees. MaryEllen has been superintendent since July 2005 and draws on a deep reservoir of educational experience in her CEO responsibilities.

Dr. Daggett will facilitate a panel discussion on strategies proven to increase graduation rates.  The prominent panel participants are Joe Follman, Executive Director of Learn & Serve Florida; Gordon Gillette, CEO of TECO & People’s Gas; Judy Nee, Executive Director of the National Afterschool Association; Joe Radelet, VP of Mentoring for Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America; and Chuck Saylors, President of the National PTA.

Breakout sessions on these strategies include Service Learning, Parent Involvement, Business Mentors, Out-of-School Time, and Ready for Work or School follow the panel. A complimentary luncheon provided by our sponsors follows with welcoming remarks by Mayor Pam Iorio, City of Tampa.

Graduation Pathway is free; attendees will receive lunch and program materials.  Interested individuals must register online.

Graduation Pathway is underwritten by State Farm Insurance, Humana and America’s Promise. Without their generous support, it would not be possible. The Tampa Bay Business Journal is the exclusive media sponsor.

More About Imagination Library

by Debra Faulk

Amidst a fanfare of front page news and features on-line and on television and radio, Imagination Library of Hillsborough County made its debut on February 26, 2008.

Imagination Library is not an actual building, but a program founded more than 10 years ago by Country-singer Dolly Parton as a gift of encouragement to children in her hometown of Sevier County, Tennessee.

Today, there are almost 800 Imagination Library programs in three countries; with Hillsborough County’s program having the potential to be the largest in the world. 

Imagination Library gives eligible babies and toddlers a new, age-appropriate book each month, free. Eligible children are all children living in Hillsborough County born on or after September 1, 2006, regardless of income. Upon registration, hardback books are mailed to the child’s home. Research tells us that children get ready to read years before they start school. This “getting ready” — or “early literacy” — is what children know about reading before they can actually do it by themselves.

Why bother reading to your baby? Clearly, he or she can’t understand what you are doing or why. But do you wait until your child can understand what you’re saying before you start to speak? Do you bypass lullabies until your baby can carry a tune? Or wait until your child can shake a rattle before offering toys? No, no, and no. So why wait to read 

Reading aloud to your baby is an important form of stimulation. It teaches them about communication; introduces concepts such as numbers, letters, colors, and shapes; builds listening, memory, and vocabulary skills; and gives babies information about the world around them.

Best of all, it is a wonderful shared activity that continues for years to come. Like all members of Hillsborough County’s Imagination Library partnership, the United Way of Tampa Bay is committed to help improve early learning opportunities for all children by providing easily accessible, age appropriate books in the home.

To learn more, register, or make a donation,   visit www.unitedwaytampabay.com/imaginationlibrary. 

Breaking News: The Imagination Library

Program gives free books to all Hillsborough kids (St. Petersburg Times)

Free Books Exercise Imagination (TBO.com)

Fox News Video about Imagination Library

United Way and the Imagination Library Hillsborough County Partnership launched an early literacy initiative to put books in the hands of young children, helping prepare them for kindergarten.Hillsborough County’s kindergarten class of 2011 – infants born on or after September 1, 2006 are eligible to participate in the program.

 

Parents can call 813-272-5017 to register their child.

For more information go to http://www.unitedwaytampabay.com/imaginationlibrary

Reading Matters

 Reading. All of us know how important it is. Imagine not being able to read a sign, a menu, the newspaper, or a good book. You couldn’t get a good job. You wouldn’t be able to read a warning label. For those of us who can read, we just take it for granted. Can we even understand what life would be like if we couldn’t?

Some stats:

The rate of children growing up with low literacy skills is a national problem. More than one million children drop out of school each year, costing the nation over $240 billion in lost earnings, forgone tax revenues, and expenditures for social services (The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions, Jeff McMullan, 1998.

Seven out of ten fourth graders cannot read at grade level and children in the poorest families are six times as likely as children in more affluent families to drop out of school (“The State of America’s Children”).

Just as literacy is important to you and your family, it is important to United Way — especially when it comes to disadvantaged children. Last year we partnered with many to launch the United Way Children’s Book Drive.

The community responded as we imagined it would. More than 100,000 new and gentle used books were collected. By partnering with the school systems in Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties, approximately 20,000  children received books. This year will do it again, sometime in late July and early August, so stay tuned.

United Way is also a partner in the Imagination Library, a wonderful program developed by Dolly Parton.  Working with seven other partners, Dolly’s brainchild is now happening in Hillsborough County in specific neighborhoods identified by zip code. Infants in those neighborhoods will get a book per month until 2011 thanks to donations from people in the community who want to help low income children not only learn how to read, but also build their own library of books. 

 The kids who are eligible are infants born on or after September 1, 2006, and living in one of the following Hillsborough County zip codes: 33563, 33604, 33610, 33612, 33614 or 33619. More information is here.

You can also visit Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library site.