Noting that over half of Philadelphia's public school students score in the bottom quarter in standardized mathematics and reading tests, the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, in cooperation with the City of Philadelphia and School District of Philadelphia, conducted a year-long planning process to craft an action plan. The planning process involved original research, community engagement, and extensive information gathering. This report details the resulting action plan and summarizes research commissioned for the project. Part 1, "Why School Readiness Is a Critical Issue," defines school readiness and details an approach to improving school readiness. Part 2, "The Philadelphia Story: An Assessment of Services and Need," identifies areas of success in meeting the needs of young children and their families as well as gaps in providing high quality readiness services. Part 3, "A Vision for Improving School Readiness: Recommendations" details recommendations in five areas: early care and education; health care; public engagement of parents; parent involvement, education, and support; and systems coordination. For each recommendation, possible strategies are delineated, costs are estimated, and community responsibility outlined. Part 4, "Summaries of Research Commissioned for the Project," presents findings of studies of child care quality in Philadelphia, parenting education and support, and a survey of Philadelphia families regarding their use and need for early care and education, health care, and parenting education and support services. Part 5 concludes the report with a series of maps showing the locations of services in various sections of Philadelphia; this part also lists acknowledgements. (Contains 41 endnotes.) (KB)