Be sure you’ve fully engaged your board and any education advisory subcommittee, community council and affinity groups. It’s hard to engage the community when your biggest ambassadors are in the dark.
Invite board members to sit in on Community Conversations. Share the resulting themes with them along with the data and experts’ views. You may even want to hold a special board briefing on early grade reading with an expert (and the data packaged for easy understanding).
Use the problem data and the community concerns, reinforced by the expert affirmation and suggestions, to create a draft case statement that lays out the community challenge and opportunity. You may not need to persuade them, but it’s a good time to start framing that case more concisely to use as a tool when you talk to residents, companies and others who may be interested in early grade reading.
