Family SupportsFinancial StabilityLiteracy
Every child in New York State is entitled to a sound, basic education under our state’s constitution. United Way invests resources and offers support to literacy programs and initiatives, including those that address the root causes of a number of issues facing families and the community by improving literacy and parents’ involvement with their children. Through regional Literacy Task Forces, we support family literacy and parent/caregiver engagement and provide resources, collaborative literacy activities, book drives, workshops and community festivals. United Way’s early childhood initiative (including Born Learning and Success by Six) assists parents, caregivers and day care providers with strengthening children’s early literacy skills.
In this section, we evaluate the quality of the region’s educational system and the achievements of students. We look at attendance and suspension rates to gauge the quality of the learning environment. We track performance on New York State tests in math and English language arts to examine how well students are learning the basics needed to graduate high school and prepare for a successful future. Our other indicators look at the outcomes of the K-12 system: the proportion of the region’s students who are graduating, earning equivalency degrees and dropping out of school.
