• Providing Direct Services
• Reforming Public Systems
• Providing Strategic Consulting
• Transforming Neighborhoods
• Strengthening Families
• Building Economic Success
• Using Data & Evaluation
• Ensuring Racial & Ethnic Equity

• Child Welfare / Permanence
• Community Change
• Economic Security
• Education
• Juvenile Justice

The Casey Foundation’s education investments have been directed toward supporting high-quality options -- such as charters and small public schools -- for improving opportunities for children and families, particularly those of color living in tough neighborhoods.

Casey is now making 3^rd grade reading achievement an increasingly important element of our place-based work, as well as a national imperative. We are working with numerous partners to help ensure that

• children are born healthy and develop on track;
• families have access to high quality early care and education services;
• schools, families and communities promote successful transitions to school;
• chronic absence is reduced; and
• children and their families experience success in the early elementary grades.

Visit the Reading Matters section of the KIDS COUNT Data Center to download a copy of Casey’s 2010 report, Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters, learn more about this initiative, and find extensive data related to early reading indicators at the national and state level.

Related Initiatives

Knowledge Center

Learn more:

Ensuring Success for Young Children: Early Childhood Literacy

Research shows that reading abilities in third grade act as a tell-tale barometer for later school success, since children who read at grade level are more likely to graduate from high school. And those who graduate from high school are more likely to pursue further education or get a job. This discussion guide for small foundations explores strategies for supporting nonprofits that provide early childhood education programs and services, especially those that focus on early childhood literacy and reading at grade level by third grade.

more >>

Data Spotlight

College Attendance

In 2006, sixty percent of young adults in Massachusetts were enrolled in or completing college, one of the highest enrollments in the United States. Find more state-level data in the KIDS COUNT Data Center.