Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students
GEEARS is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization operating to inspire and provide leadership for a statewide movement on quality early learning and healthy development for all children ages birth through five. GEEARS was established in 2010 to help business, civic and government leaders maximize the economic return on the state’s investments in early care and learning.
Early education benefits children, their families and their communities.
From improved outcomes to economic savings for states and communities, the benefits of high-quality early learning are irrefutable.
Georgia’s children are falling below – or barely meeting – the basic standard in reading by the end of 3rd grade. On the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading test, just 34 percent of 4th graders scored at or above proficient. According to a longitudinal study commissioned by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, children who cannot read proficiently by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school. Access to quality early education can help put these children on a path to success, which will have positive ramifications, not just for the children and their families, but for all Georgians.
GEEARS is focused on leading and convening powerful early childhood initiatives that create public awareness while sustaining positive change.
Initiatives led by GEEARS include First 2000 Days, Frontiers of Innovation, Mayor’s Summer Reading Club, Speaker Series and Rooted to Rise.
Learn more here: https://geears.org/
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