Mission Statement
At Jumpstart, we recognize the state of inequality in early educational experiences in America. And we also recognize that quality early educational experiences have a lasting impact. In fact, the best predictor of whether a 10th grader is reading at grade level is actually whether or not that child knew his alphabet at the age of 5. Extensive cognitive and neurological research indicates that the parts of the human brain most important for learning and developing cognitive skills are most active at an early age.
Based on this research, the Jumpstart model is designed to enhance the educational efforts of Head Start and other early learning programs. By connecting early, through caring one-to-one relationships, Jumpstart promotes crucial brain development and essential primary skill building that leads to success not just in school, but also in life.
With our commitment to broad and sustainable social change, it is also important for others to understand and adopt our vision. For this reason, we create strong and meaningful connections with:
- Families of Jumpstart children: to reinforce learning, empower parents, strengthen parent-child bonds, and develop one-to-one learning relationships at home.
- College & Universities: to leverage their Federal work-study programs and faculty expertise, while simultaneously bringing support networks to neighboring communities.
- Corps Members: to engage college students to work one-to-one with preschoolers, creating a group of trained, college-educated individuals with strong experience in early childhood education, an interest in continuing to serve in the field, and inspiration to be active and responsible citizens.
Description
What is Jumpstart's Read for the Record?
Jumpstart's Read for the Record is a national campaign designed to encourage hundreds of thousands of children and adults from across the country to read the same book on the same day.
Why was Jumpstart's Read for the Record created? The goal of Jumpstart's Read for the Record campaign is to raise public awareness about significant disparities in early education. An early learning gap exists as early as age 3, due primarily to economic inequality. And because of these early discrepancies in language acquisition and literacy skills, one third of America's children arrive at their first day of school unprepared to learn. Awareness about this issue is crucial, as this early learning disparity serves as a critical precursor to our country's persistent educational achievement gap.
How Jumpstart's Read for the Record Works Through this campaign, Jumpstart is asking Americans to support early education opportunities for all children by reading the official campaign book,The Story of Ferdinand, together on September 20, 2007 to break the record for the largest shared reading experience ever, which was set by 150,000 people on August 24, 2006 during the inaugural year of Jumpstart's Read for the Record campaign. Reading activities on September 20 can range from personal sessions between an adult and a child to big group events with hundreds of people gathering together for a large community reading session.
