Mayor Taveras, Superintendent Lusi and Providence Students Participate in Nationwide Effort to "Read for the Record"

Kindergarteners listen in as Mayor, Superintendent read Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney.

Providence's youngest school children helped to set a new world record today by taking part in Jumpstart's Sixth Annual Read for the Record®, a national campaign designed to break the world record for the number of adults and children reading the same book on the same day, while also raising awareness of early childhood education issues and working to break the cycle of early childhood learning gaps.

Mayor Angel Taveras and Superintendent Dr. Susan F. Lusi each made a guest reading appearance at a Providence elementary school to take part in the effort, reading Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney.

Mayor Taveras read to all three Kindergarten classes at Lillian Feinstein Elementary School at Sackett Street, while Dr. Lusi visited teacher Michelle St. Germaine's Kindergarten Class at Fogarty Elementary School. Members of the Providence Schools Teaching & Learning division also visited other elementary schools across the city. Students in PreK and Kindergarten across the district, about 2,200 children in total, took part in this national campaign.

Last year, Providence PreK and K students were among 2,057,513 children worldwide reading Ezra Jack Keats's The Snowy Day as part of Jumpstart's 2010 Campaign, which broke the world record for the largest shared reading experience in history by surpassing the participation mark of 2,019,752 set in 2009. Read for the Record® is presented in partnership with the Pearson Foundation, which, as with last year, has donated classroom copies of this year's book to distribute to all Pre-K and K classrooms in the Providence public schools.

Research shows that 1-in-3 American children enter kindergarten behind, and most will never catch up. The reality is that if children start school behind, they stay behind.

For more information about this year's event, visit www.readfortherecord.org.