Literacy Summit.3

On October 15, 2007, the Verizon Foundation and its national partners hosted the National Literacy Summit.3 - Competitive Literacies for the Global Economy: Building Learning Communities. Featuring Dr. Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, the Summit convened global thought leaders to discuss and demonstrate the definition of literacy and learning required in a competitive global economy and how local literacy programs can be more effective in building learning communities.


"It's the last third of the American public, the bottom third is getting a substandard, perhaps third world education, is often functionally illiterate, does not have access to decent education, decent health care, said Dr. Zakaria. "In other words, our real competitiveness problem is an inequality problem."

As part of the Summit, Verizon and the National Center for Family Literacy unveiled an innovative online tool designed to help local literacy organizations evaluate their programs and make changes to produce better results and help increase national literacy rates. The evaluation tool, called the Verizon Literacy Program Self-Assessment Tool (VLP-SAT) was created by NCFL and funded by the Verizon Foundation. It is the first time a comprehensive online literacy evaluation too has been made available to all literacy programs for free at one location, Thinkfinity.org.

"Thousands of people give their time and effort daily to advance the cause of literacy but unfortunately, despite those great efforts, literacy rates in our country are still not where they need to be," said Sharon Darling, president and founder of NCFL. "This self-assessment tool provides a roadmap with more scope and depth than any other tool currently available."

View an archived webcast of the event featuring:

  • Phyllis Magrab, Director, Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University - Introduction
  • Kathy Brown, Senior Vice President of Public Policy abd Corporate Responsibility, Verizon Communications - Literacy as an Economic and Business Issue
  • Dr. Fareed Zakaria, Editor, Newsweek International - Keynote Address excerpts - Competitive Learning in the Global Economy
  • Panel Discussion - Drivers of a Literate Community featuring:
    • Sherry Clairborne, President, National Coalition for Literacy
    • Alan Farstrup, Executive Director, International Reading Association
    • Sharon Darling, President and Founder, National Center for Family Literacy
    • Peter Waite, Executive Director, ProLiteracy America
  • Panel Discussion - Community Literacy Solutions featuring:
    • Sharon Darling, President and Founder, National Center for Family Literacy
    • Janet Murguia, President and CEO, National Council of La Raza
    • Gary Knell, President and CEO, Sesame Workshop
    • Mark Morial, President and CEo, National Urban League
    • Dale Lipschultz, Literacy Officer, Office of Literacy and Outreach Services, American Library Association
  • Patrick Gaston, President, Verizon Foundation - Summit Wrap-up