According to the Campaign for Grade Level Reading, reading proficiency by the end of the 3rd grade is the most important predictor of high school graduation and career success.

Only 38% of Charleston's third graders, including those in Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester Counties, are reading at or above grade level.

"Fifty-two years after Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared separate but equal to be inherently unequal, Charleston has Academic Magnet with 2.8 percent of its students black, and 10 miles away Burke High is 1 percent white." -The Post & Courier, 1.28.2016

If nothing changes, only 4.2 % of African American ninth-graders in Charleston County will be college ready in four years.

#educate843

We can do better. For all children.

Excellence in education is possible.

Join us in a series of Meetings for Charleston’s Children,
as we explore and examine models of progress from around the country to help determine what will work best in the Charleston region.

#educate843

The First Meeting for Charleston's Children

**Join a broad coalition of community members in conversation with national education pioneers who are transforming public school systems to bring equal opportunities in Education for all children.**

Across the nation today, our system of public education persistently produces significantly better learning outcomes for students who live in middle- to upper- income, largely white households than for those living in low-income, largely African-American households. Year after year, the magnitude of this outcome gap translates into significantly different levels of expected lifetime achievement—one group enjoys the potential for bright futures, while the other has a high probability of continuing to live in poverty. Such disparities are the result of a system of public education that is simply not effective in meeting the needs of low income students—a population that is now greater than one-half the students in our nation's public schools! Unfortunately, these disparities are clearly present in the Charleston region.

Just as Charleston showed the nation how to come together in a time of great tragedy in the aftermath of the Mother Emanuel massacre, a growing coalition of community members has come together under the banner of The Movement for Effective Schools for ALL Charleston’s Children to show our region, our state, and our nation that we will not allow these disparities to continue. Whether one is motivated to accept this responsibility to encourage local economic development and create more job opportunities for all, for reasons of social equity, or for some other reason, it matters not. The Movement will capitalize on the strong sense of unity in our community so that we can work together to make substantive progress now.

The Meetings for Charleston’s Children series is the next step in educating and empowering concerned community members with knowledge of what’s working in communities around the nation. The first meeting brings together four thought leaders who have deep experience with a number of “disruptive” models that: work to help the poorest performing schools get better; help incubate, replicate, and support great public schools; identify and invest in school-level talent; and authentically engage the community to support elevating expectations of excellence in education.