Posted on July 2, 2009

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McKnight Foundation Announces New Literacy Initiative

The Minneapolis-based McKnight Foundation has announced a new early child-development initiative designed to increase the literacy rate of Twin Cities students by the end of third grade.

The foundation's decision to promote reading success was informed by more than a year of planning, including research into evidence-based programs and interviews with field leaders and stakeholders in education and youth development. A key finding of the research was that the academic success of a student, as defined by whether he or she graduates from high school, can be predicted with reasonable accuracy by knowing the student's reading skill level by the end of third grade.

To help ensure the success of the new approach, McKnight will work to forge new collaborations and strengthen existing alliances with a growing field of early education advocates in nonprofits, the business community, philanthropy, and the formal education system. In light of its limited resources, however, the foundation is reviewing all its strategies to support children in order to determine which are relevant to the new goal and make adjustments as needed.

After lengthy consideration, the foundation also decided to discontinue discrete grantmaking to support fatherhood development, parenting skills building, and family economic success. To that end, staff have contacted the affected grantees and begun a multiyear transition out of those three funding areas. However, the foundation will continue to fund multi-service family support organizations, which are a major component of the human service infrastructure in the Twin Cities region. Decisions about future support for out-of-school-time programs and homeless and runaway youth are still under consideration.

"This opportunity builds on McKnight's current early childhood efforts, moving further up the pipeline into important transitions from kindergarten through third grade," said McKnight Foundation president Kate Wolford. "By adding a focus on third-grade literacy, we will safeguard our related investments to prepare children for kindergarten, leverage existing leadership and expertise, and address the educational achievement gap.

“McKnight Focuses on Improved Literacy by Third Grade.” McKnight Foundation Press Release 6/30/09.

Primary Subject: Education
Secondary Subject(s): Children and Youth, Elementary and Secondary Education
Location(s): Minneapolis, Minnesota

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