At the core of the POWER4Kids Initiative is a challenge to the dynamic of American education. Parents and the communities have trusted educational philosophies, influenced more by social and political contingences, to decide how our young are taught. It was naïve and, in many regards, tragic. We ask ourselves, "How could we let this happen?"

Regardless of the reason, it has happened and millions of American children are seriously underserved. However, until the very recent past we did not have the skill or the aptitude to analyze the complexities of reading attainment. Now we do-our fate is in our hands. We are blessed with this opportunity to create a major research body-of-evidence, with empirical data, which will award us the necessary knowledge and information to make sweeping changes in local school curriculum and implement afterschool instructional programs. Knowledge is crucial followed by change, which is seemingly urgent, to ensure acceptable progress in the achievement level of ALL American children.

YOUR COMMUNITY: Your community's passion and ownership in the POWER4Kids study is essential; and, ultimately, through your participation, you will have the power to implement new programs in your school curriculums and afterschool programs. It is incumbent on every community to provide their young with the basic skills needed to become productive members of the population-to become a resource for local companies as they enter the job market. POWER4Kids enriches all citizens: every neighborhood; every special interest group; every club; every organization; every district; and, every person. It works to everyone's benefit and no one's detriment.

In terms of goals, objectivity, subjects and data, your community will be proud and honored to be supporting POWER4Kids. It is the most utilizable reading research ever undertaken. This quantitative range and depth of information will enhance your community and will help millions of American children lead a productive life.

ALL COMMUNITIES: To facilitate this change, our research team of educational experts needs to conduct instructional evaluations at forty geographic sites across the country in a community-by-community approach. We will not conduct this study in a lab, but in real classrooms and clinics across America. Each site consists of fifty children who are already experiencing a reading difficulty-more than one grade level behind their peers. These students will be assessed for their strengths and weaknesses, be provided a specific instruction program, taught and observed, monitored for the degree of improvement, compared against other students in their own and other programs, and tested and followed over time to determine sustainability of the success of their new skills. POWER4Kids is designed to involve state and local school boards, teachers, principles, parents, students, policymakers and community leaders.