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For Immediate Release

POWER4KIDS INITIATIVE HOSTS SCIENTIFIC BOARD OF ADVISORS IN SAN FRANCISCO

Two Days of Meetings and Private Reception at the Home of

Power4Kids Founders Cinthia and Ron Haan

Set the Stage for Changing How We Teach Our Children To Read

(San Francisco) -- A dozen of the nation’s leading experts in reading research gathered in San Francisco for The Haan Foundation’s Power4Kids board meeting on May 2nd and May 3rd.   The Haan Foundation assembled this group of esteemed Scientists for Children in its efforts to take a business approach to the business of teaching all of our children to read.  It was a landmark event.  The purpose: To draw upon their collective wisdom to plot the course and iron out the details of a nationwide study being implemented for the sole purpose of finding the best solutions for helping children with reading and learning disparities read at or above grade level.

Beginning next year, their Power4Kids Study will provide evidence on how we can change the educational outcome for millions of children.  It is an undertaking that Ron and Cinthia Haan are intensely passionate about -- so much so, that they established a foundation, initially funding it with their own resources, to do just that. 

When the doors opened at day’s end on this notable meeting of minds, a collective sense of direction and purpose was decidedly in the air. Decisions had been made, and solid steps towards design, execution and management strategies taken, for determining effective, replicable and scalable programs to teach America’s children to read—children who are not even currently at reading levels proficient enough to get them through school, let alone as effective functional members of society. 

The board also met many of San Francisco’s leading citizens at a reception held in their honor on Thursday, May 2nd at the Pacific Heights home of Power4Kids founders, Ron and Cinthia Haan.

Notable at both the conference and reception was the fact that every sector of our society was represented there – parents, teachers, policymakers, government officials and children – identifying that a real problem does exist and unified in their concern and desire to implement real and lasting change.  As is typical with the successful implementation of any nationwide reform, the convergence of public and private sectors is highly desirable, indeed requisite, to produce groundbreaking results. The credentialed and highly esteemed researchers, scientists and policymakers already associated with this vital mission are validation that Power4Kids Initiative is on track.

The Power4Kids effort being undertaken by the Haans and the show of support demonstrated here by the local community is evidence that the American spirit, that sense of banding together to cure a problem, is clearly at work. The issue of reading and learning failure knows no economic, ethnic or religious boundaries.  This Initiative is assembling, unifying and mobilizing a collective effort to change the future of our country.

The Power4Kids Reading Initiative is designed to provide scientific-based evidence on which reading programs and instructional methods work and for whom.  Even more important is the determination to mobilize and disseminate this information into the hands of every parent, teacher and policymaker in this country. To that end, a study is to be implemented in over 100 public, charter and private schools across the country— the largest randomized classroom analysis of reading instruction approaches ever to take place.  It is also the first of its kind to take place in a setting where results can be realistically monitored and recorded— as living, breathing models in our children’s schools rather than the controlled generic environment of laboratories.  With a careful eye on the instructional effects, the study will deliver data that will drive public policy to scale programs and professional development that replicate these results. This effort ties in with the Bush administration’s education bill and the push to “leave no child behind.” 

“Today, barely 61% of our country’s fourth graders can read at a basic level, and that number decreases to 39% for disadvantaged students, 35% for African Americans, 37% for Hispanics and 23% for students with learning differences” said Cinthia Haan.  “The Power4Kids Initiative takes a unique approach, based on pure science and sound business practices, to solve this crisis.  By understanding each child’s learning style and matching it to targeted instruction, 98% of children can and will experience reading success.  Parents, teachers and policymakers want usable information that facilitates intelligent decisions.  The Power4Kids Reading Initiative will provide the tools… We can dramatically improve the educational trajectory and life course for millions of children previously held to be beyond hope— youth that turn to truancy, drug abuse and, ultimately, are incarcerated and unemployed as adults.  This study will equip us with the vital information we need to prepare our children for the future by ensuring they have the basic skill of literacy.  It will give us the powerful information we need by using a random assignment of subjects.  Only fifty years ago, the same methodologies lead to the breakthrough Salk vaccine trials that saved millions from the polio epidemic”.

The Power4Kids Board is chaired by Dr. Joseph K. Torgensen, Robert M. Gagne Professor of Psychology and Education at Florida State University and Director of the FSU Language and Learning Center.  Other board members include Dr. Sally Shaywitz, Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention; Dr. Frank Manis, Language and Cognitive Science Lab at the University of Southern California; Dr. Maureen Lovett, Senior Scientists Research Institute at the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto; Dr. Rebecca Felton, Educational Director, formally of Wake Forest University; Dr. Dick Olson, Institute for Cognitive Science Center for Neuroscience, University of Colorado; Dr. Barbara Foorman, Director of The Center for Academic and Reading Skills, University of Texas; Dr. John Gabrieli, Director of the Gabrieli Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at Stanford University; and Dr. Jack Fletcher, The Center for Academic and Reading Skills, University of Texas; Marion Joseph, California State Board of Education; Claiborne Barksdale, CEO, Barksdale Reading Institute; Randi Weingarten, President of the United Federation of Teachers; Dr. G. Reid Lyon, internationally renowned research expert and child psychologist; and John Sidgmore, Chairman, WorldCom Inc.  Joining the board in a consultative capacity on methodology is Dr. Stephen Raudenbush, Professor of Education at Michigan State University.

The Haans have worked for several years to identify, design, develop, translate and  ameliorate this educational crisis with a series of pragmatic approaches and solutions to ensure our American children learn to read and have an opportunity to become productive thriving members of our society.

More information can be found on www.haan4kids.org