Children's Literacy Initiative

Helping children, no matter who they are or where they come from, learn how to read.

aka CLI   |   Philadelphia, PA   |  www.CLI.org

Mission

Children's Literacy Initiative works with educators to transform instruction so that children can become powerful readers, writers and thinkers. CLI envisions a nation where every child has the power of literacy and the opportunity for a lifetime of success.

Ruling year info

1988

Executive Director

Joel Zarrow Ph.D.

Main address

990 Spring Garden St 4th Floor, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19123 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

23-2515768

NTEE code info

Remedial Reading, Reading Encouragement (B92)

Primary/Elementary Schools (B24)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

The need for better early reading performance is stark: Only 36% of U.S. fourth graders are proficient readers, and 32% are “below basic” readers. Students who are not reading proficiently by third grade rarely catch up in later grades and are four times more likely not to graduate high school; those who are below basic level in third grade are 6 times more likely to drop out. Studies continue to show the direct link between reading levels, poverty, and student achievement. In low-income neighborhoods, on average, there is one book for every 300 children versus middle-income neighborhoods, where there are 13 books per child. Fewer bookstores and public library branches are located in economically depressed communities. In addition, children in low-income households start kindergarten with vocabularies that contain 30,000 fewer words than those of affluent children. CLI’s goal is to close the gap in literacy achievement between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Coaching and Professional Development

CLI helps teachers, school-based coaches, teacher leaders, principals, and district leaders implement strategies & systems for continuous improvement of early literacy instruction. CLI offers one-on-one individualized coaching, grade level coaching, and small group coaching.

Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Economically disadvantaged people

CLI’s workshops and institutes build teachers’ knowledge of literacy content and pedagogy. These trainings focus on: Classroom Culture & Environment; Intentional Read Aloud; Guided Reading; Reading & Writing Workshops; and Independent Work Time.

Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Economically disadvantaged people

CLI provides collections of developmentally appropriate books for students’ ages and reading levels. The books offer a balance of genres and both fiction and nonfiction.

Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Economically disadvantaged people

Where we work

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

CLI works with teachers to transform literacy instruction in public, charter, and parochial schools to ensure that students can read on grade level. Building a teacher’s instructional expertise impacts student learning over the course of a teacher’s career. CLI’s accomplishes this through a program centered around coaching, workshops, and books.

- CLI provides job-embedded, content-focused coaching, both one-on-one and in small groups in the classroom. Coaches provide demonstrations and feedback that help teachers incorporate effective literacy practices into their daily work with students.

- CLI delivers workshops and seminars to build teachers’ knowledge of literacy content and pedagogy. Additionally, CLI’s free online platform extends services with online professional development resources to keep educators up-to-date on the best practices in early literacy education.

- CLI stocks classrooms with learning materials and collections of high-quality children’s literature. LI provides a variety of developmentally appropriate books for students’ ages and reading levels that can be used for instruction and student enjoyment. The books offer a variety of genres and include fiction and non-fiction.

CLI works with school and district leaders to develop new skills and create new processes that ensure long-term sustainability and establish a cycle of continuous improvements for students. Through regular leadership team meetings and reviews of progress as well as principal meetings, CLI helps leaders to examine their successes and areas in need of improvement, resulting in actionable feedback.

CLI’s strategic goal is to increase its project scope by 55% to reach 110,000 students by the 2020-2021 school year through contiguous and non-contiguous growth, as well as priority programmatic improvement of CLI’s prekindergarten services.

CLI strengthens education in the U.S. by helping low-income students read on grade level. We accomplish this by providing coaching, materials, and workshops.

- We coach teachers — one-on-one and in small groups in the classroom — to provide them with demonstrations and feedback that will help them incorporate effective literacy practices into their daily work with students. Research has proven that coaches and mentors are found to be highly effective in helping teachers implement new skills. Our coaching model is content-focused and designed to provide teachers with individualized and situation-specific assistance focused on literacy content, pedagogy, and student learning. Content-focused coaching is based upon the belief that in order for teachers to be most effective, they need to know the content of that which they are teaching.

- We deliver workshops and seminars in best practices for teaching early literacy. Our trainings build teachers' knowledge of literacy content and pedagogy. Research has found that successful professional development emphasizes active teaching, assessment, observation, and reflection - rather than abstract discussions - and is sustained over time. CLI’s professional development model provides rigorous training seminars which, followed by job-embedded coaching, help teachers convert unfamiliar strategies into classroom habits through practice, constructive feedback, and support.

- Book collections are the heart of our program. The ability for students to access books is critical to their success. We know that children benefit from seeing people like themselves in the books they read, which means that for an organization working in urban schools, CLI’s collections must be as diverse as the populations we serve. Therefore, we make sure to select as many quality multicultural picture books for inclusion in all of our book collections.


CLI focuses on the craft of teaching and builds on teachers' instructional strengths - skills that improve over time and are not lost when administrations, buildings, or curricula change - to create a sustainable culture of literacy that introduces students to the joys of reading.

The key features of CLI’s validated model are grounded in research and honed through implementation experience, including a 2010 i3 Validation project (2,438 educators in 55 schools) and 2015 i3 Scale-up project (scheduled to reach more than 2,000 educators by 2020). The Validation study shows CLI’s key features combine to form a powerful, practical approach to improving educator effectiveness and student learning, with external evaluation noting it was “implemented in schools with a high level of fidelity across the three study years” (Parkinson, Salinger, Meakin, Smith, & Drummond, 2018).

An American Institutes for Research report on results from a three year, randomized control study concluded, “The CLI program produces substantial effects on teachers’ classroom environment and literacy practices, which in turn, lead to measurable effects on average reading achievement in early elementary grades."

University of Pennsylvania’s Center for High Impact Philanthropy has cited CLI as an “exemplar agent” in improving early literacy instruction since 2008 and notes that it is one of five national education organizations in which investments have the most impact because it has externally evaluated results, evidence-based programs, and a cost-effective approach.

Additionally, in 2017 CLI was awarded the David M. Rubenstein Prize, the top honor in the Library of Congress Literacy Awards program for making an outstanding and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels.

CLI is currently working in schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Chicago, and working on a comprehensive anti-racist curriculum, Blueprint for Early Learning, that seeks to help teachers ensure that students from Pre-K-5th grade are given the quality instruction they need to learn to read. As an anti-racist instruction, CLI also provides thousands of teachers across the country lesson plans, training, and classroom support focused on nurturing the whole student to ensure that black and latinx students are given an education that lifts them up and supports them. In addition, CLI's work has been proven through RFA studies to be effective at increasing reading ability and giving students better opportunities for success by the end of 5th grade.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We demonstrated a willingness to learn more by reviewing resources about feedback practice.
done We shared information about our current feedback practices.
  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback

Financials

Children's Literacy Initiative
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

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Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

Children's Literacy Initiative

Board of directors
as of 02/22/2022
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

David J. Bloom

Merrill Lynch

David J Bloom

Wilmington Trust Company

Bonnie Greenberg

Vert Charitable Trust

Elizabeth Pilacik

BDO

Victoria Raivitch

Grant Thornton LLP

Susan B Smith

Devereux CIDDS' Kanner Learning Center

Joel Zarrow

Children's Literacy Initiative

Christine S Beck

Child Advocate

Richard Berkman

Dechert LLP

John Bonow

PFM

Philip Cowen

Wells Fargo Advisors LLC

Nelson Flores

University of Pennsylvania

Mary Klein

Retired Educator

Gerald Mosely

CP&P Development LLC

Jonathan Risch

DPIS Engineering

Adam Spector

Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC

Jacqueline Woolley

The Ezold Law Firm PC

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 4/7/2021

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Male, Not transgender
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or Straight
Disability status
Decline to state

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

Transgender Identity

Sexual orientation

No data

Disability

No data