U.S. Ed. Department Pushes Summer Reading With #ReadWhereYouAre
Reading & Literacy

U.S. Ed. Department Pushes Summer Reading With #ReadWhereYouAre

By Liana Loewus — August 05, 2016 2 min read
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UPDATED

Today, the U.S. Department of Education is asking people to share photos of themselves reading as part of its #ReadWhereYouAre campaign.

According to the department, the annual call to action aims to encourage young people to do more reading outside of school. The effort is under the president’s two-year-old My Brother’s Keeper initiative, which works to improve educational and career opportunities for young men of color.

The website for the #ReadWhereYouAre campaign cites research showing that summer learning loss hurts low-income students. “In fact, by 8th grade, that lost learning time accounts for 2/3 of the achievement gap between low-income children and their more affluent peers,” it says, referring to 2007 research by Johns Hopkins sociologist Karl Alexander.

Some education department representatives have been taking the photo challenge seriously.

(We’re still waiting on Education Secretary John B. King Jr.'s selfie...)

As the website states, “reading can happen at home, on the bus, on the beach, at the barbershop, and at the library!” Here are a few other folks who got into the spirit.

UPDATE: King did come through with that selfie before the end of the day on Friday.

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Liana Loewus
Assistant Managing Editor
Liana Loewus was an assistant managing editor for Education Week who oversaw news coverage of teaching and learning.
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A version of this news article first appeared in the Curriculum Matters blog.