San Francisco, CA (October 28, 2003) -- Recent reports indicate that Latino children, the U.S.'s largest and fastest growing minority youth population, are performing well below the national average in reading with 56 percent of Latino fourth graders reading below grade level. While Latino families place a high value on education and want their children to succeed in school, parents need additional resources that assist them in fulfilling their important role of fostering children's early literacy in conjunction with schools, libraries and teachers.
 
Responding to the community's desire for an innovative approach to improve the reading and literacy development of Latino children, Scholastic, the global children's publishing and media company, convened a broad-based partnership which includes a National Latino Advisory Committee, the Latino Community Foundation (a supporting organization of the San Francisco Foundation), KDTV Univision 14, Verizon Communications and Weston Woods Institute to develop Lee y serás (Read and you will be), a multi-faceted, multi-year reading initiative. The project, which will inform, engage, and help prepare families and communities to support the reading development of Latino children, will be piloted in the San Francisco Bay Area for one year before launching nationwide, and reflects Scholastic's commitment to bringing the very best educational and reading materials to the Latino community.
 
Lee y serás was created by researchers, community leaders and educators in the Latino community and employs a wide array of materials and outlets to deliver the messages that children's language and reading development begins at home, and the community has a responsibility to help address the reading needs of Latino children. Key components of the initiative include:

• Caravana Lee y serás, a mobile learning center created in conjunction with Weston Woods Institute, that will host ongoing workshops on reading development for families and childcare providers in Latino communities;
• Public service announcement (PSA) produced in collaboration with KDTV Univision 14, Lee y serás' official Spanish language television sponsor, will deliver key campaign messages and encourage Latino families to build on the strengths of their Latino culture to talk, sing, share stories, and read with their children;
• Lee y serás Family Album, an audio guide that features culturally authentic stories embedded with “illustrations” of how reading and literacy skills are learned and fostered in everyday activities;
•  Lee y serás Community Leadership Institutes designed and conducted in partnership with Verizon Communications to strengthen the community's ability to address the reading needs of Latino children.

 
“Lee y serás was developed by the Latino community for the Latino community to reinforce with parents and teachers that traditional everyday activities, such as storytelling, singing songs, and recalling folklore, poems and dichos (proverbs) build early language and literacy skills,” said Teresa Mlawer, President of Lectorum Publications, a division of Scholastic and member of the National Latino Advisory Committee. “Parents will also learn new ways to fulfill their important role in helping kids learn through Lee y serás workshops and materials.”
 
In the first year of the program, the Latino Community Foundation, and its parent organization The San Francisco Foundation, will help bring the message of Lee y serás, the Caravana and the Family Album to local Bay Area non-profit organizations and childcare centers. In addition, the Lee y serás Community Leadership Institutes, supported by Verizon Communications, will help Latino community leaders gain a deeper understanding of the reading issues facing Latino children and how literacy achievement is linked to educational attainment. These in-depth training sessions will strengthen Latino community leaders' capacity to advocate for the reading and literacy needs of Latino children.
 
“Lee y serás will help the entire Latino community embrace reading and become advocates for enriching children's lives with reading practice and the scholastic achievement that follows,” said Marcela Medina, Chair of the Latino Community Foundation and General Manager of KDTV Univision 14. “We are excited about working with our communities in the San Francisco Bay Area to bring the joy of reading to our children.”
 
Gil Conchas, Ph.D., associate professor at Harvard University will assess the effectiveness of the Lee y serás initiative during its first year through interviews with participants and observations of the program's trainings and workshops. Dr. Conchas' pilot study will inform plans for the subsequent years of the national initiative.
 
In addition to the Lee y serás initiative, Scholastic is continuing its mission of promoting cross-cultural diversity through The Misadventures of Maya and Miguel™, a new animated children's series, which received the largest-ever children's TV grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to develop a children's multi-media project. The series is set to air on PBS KIDS in the fall of 2004. In addition, Scholastic recently launched a new Spanish imprint, Scholastic en español, which will publish an array of Spanish language and bilingual books for children of all ages. Scholastic en español will include original licensed publishing and original Spanish language works from best selling Latino authors including Luis Sepúlveda and José-Luis Orozco.
 
Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL) is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books. Scholastic creates quality educational and entertaining materials and products for use in school and at home, including children's books, magazines, technology-based products, teacher materials, television programming, videos and toys. Scholastic distributes its products and services through a variety of channels, including proprietary school-based book clubs, school-based book fairs and school-based and direct-to-home continuity programs; retail stores, schools, libraries and television networks; and the Company's Internet Site,  www.scholastic.com.
 
Founded in 1989, the Latino Community Foundation is a community foundation investing in the social and economic empowerment of U.S. Latinos by focusing on three critical areas: early childhood reading, math/science achievement among Latino youth, and financial empowerment. This mandate is significantly enhanced through our new partnership with The San Francisco Foundation (TSFF), which we launched in 2002. Together with TSFF, we share a vision: we believe that by taking responsibility for our shared destiny and supporting the educational and financial aspirations of Latinos, we will help build awareness and participation in Latino philanthropy while strengthening our communities. Our vision of taking responsibility for a shared destiny is based on the well-documented and unprecedented growth of the U.S. Hispanic population, which will drive the future of our nation.
 
Univision Communications Inc. is the premier Spanish-language media company in the United States. Its operations include Univision Network, the most-watched Spanish-language broadcast television network in the U.S. reaching 97% of U.S. Hispanic Households; TeleFutura Network, a new general-interest Spanish-language broadcast television network reaching 77% of U.S. Hispanic Households; Univision Television Group, which owns and operates 23 Univision Network television stations and 1 non-Univision television station; TeleFutura Television Group, which owns and operates 29 TeleFutura Network television stations; Galavisión, the country's leading Spanish-language cable network; Univision Radio, the leading Spanish-language radio group which owns and/or operates 65 radio stations in 17 of the top 25 U.S. Hispanic markets and 4 stations in Puerto Rico; Univision Music Group, which includes the Univision Records, Fonovisa Records, and a 50% interest in Mexico-based Disa Records labels as well as Fonomusic and America Musical Publishing companies; and Univision Online, the premier Spanish-language Internet destination in the U.S. located at  www.univision.com. Univision Communications is headquartered in Los Angeles with network operations in Miami and television stations and sales offices in major cities throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.univision.net .
 
A Fortune 10 company, Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) is one of the world's leading providers of communications services, with approximately $67 billion in revenues and 221,000 employees. Verizon companies are the largest providers of wireline and wireless communications in the United States, with 137.6 million access line equivalents and 34.6 million Verizon Wireless customers. Verizon is the third largest long-distance carrier for U.S. consumers, with 14.6 million long-distance lines. The company is also the largest directory publisher in the world, as measured by directory titles and circulation. Verizon's international presence includes wireline and wireless communications operations and investments, primarily in the Americas and Europe. For more information, visit www.verizon.com .
 
Verizon is committed to being America's literacy champion. The company is conducting a national campaign to increase community awareness and to generate additional funding and support of literacy programs for adults, children and families. Working under the banner of Verizon Reads, the award-winning philanthropy program reaches out to the nearly 40 million Americans who have low literacy skills. For more information on Verizon Reads, visit www.VerizonReads.net .
 
Weston Woods Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to innovative educational and cultural communications that enrich the lives of children. Building on its rich history as a developer of multimedia for children, the Institute conducts research on best practices in early childhood literacy, and runs educational programs using its unique fleet of mobile literacy environments, which are known as The Literacy Caravan. In this creative environment, early childhood specialists deliver workshops on the ways childcare providers and parents can support children's literacy development through daily activities.

Contacts: