From Kevin Oklobzija, Rochester Business Journal

ROC the Future, a community-wide initiate that engages more than 100 organizations and individuals to collectively improve academic outcomes for students, has received a grant of nearly $75,000 from StriveTogether.

StriveTogether is a national nonprofit working to build the capacity of communities so they can improve outcomes for every child, from cradle to career, by providing strategic assistance, network communications and high-quality resources.

ROC the Future will use the grant to support a newly developed team that is working to ensure all students in Rochester are reading on grade level and developing advanced literacies in reading, writing, critical thinking skills and oral proficiencies.

The grant is part of StriveTogether’s Cradle to Career Community Challenge, which seeks to create local change to enable economic mobility. The goal is to strengthen and align the many systems that shape opportunity for children and families, such as education, employment, health and housing.

“Reading proficiency by third grade is the most important predictor of high school graduation and career success, yet each year more than 80 percent of Rochester’s low-income children miss this crucial milestone,” Jackie Campbell, ROC the Future alliance director, said in a news release. “This has significant and long-term consequences—not only for each of those children, but for our community as a whole.

“This transformational gift will allow us to put our collective efforts toward results to increase our capacity to use data and continuous improvement to focus on interventions that support students’ ability to read on grade level by the third grade.”