About Our Project...

The overall purpose of this project is to improve third grade reading proficiency for students on the Gila River Indian Community. This will, in turn, launch the students on the path to college and career success. This will be accomplished through the programs and services we provide thus enabling the students to be reading at grade level by 3rd grade..

Purpose and Expected Outcomes of the Project: The Developing Readers: A Home, School and Community Partnership Model project is designed to meet the absolute priority of ensuring Native American children/students are college and career ready through a comprehensive, needs-based, three-tiered model focused on literacy/reading proficiency delivered in the home and school through community partnerships. The overarching goal of the proposed project is to ensure that all children on Gila River Indian Reservation become proficient readers by third grade.

The identified Goals for the Project are: Goal 1: Increase the reading proficiency level of all students enrolled in K-3 at the School Choice partners utilizing an Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) evidence-based curriculum. Goal 2: Initiate a comprehensive home visiting/family engagement program with a focus on literacy within the home and community. Goal 3: Establish two demonstration preschool sites to expand high quality education to meet the unfulfilled need on Gila River Indian Reservation. Goal 4: Establish a cross-sector, professional learning community that builds the capacity of families to engage in home-based literacy practices and the development of school-based reading expertise of all teachers in preschool – 3rd grade schools that results in an increase in the reading proficiency of all students.

The Developing Readers project will leverage family engagement programs and events to build parent capacity to make positive school choices for their children. The families participating in family engagement programming at each demonstration site will acquire the knowledge, tools, and resources needed to make informed decisions about their children’s education within the family engagement and/or home visiting components of the project. This information sharing on school choice will begin with home visiting programs and continue through the elementary components of the project.

Area being Served: The Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) is a 374,000-acre Indian Reservation located in South Central Arizona, bordering the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Community lies south of the cities of Phoenix, Tempe, and Chandler, and north of Casa Grande. GRIC is the fourth largest federally recognized Native American Tribe in the United States and consists of two distinct tribes the Pimas (Akimel O’Odham) and Maricopas (Pee Posh).
Developing Readers – A Home, School and Community Partnership Model is the vehicle for change that will ensure all children are proficient readers by third grade and in turn are College and Career Ready.