At the start of the 2021 school year, in-person learning was something many young students had never encountered, and something slightly older students hadn't done in many months. The adjustment to a new educational environment created challenges in the classroom. Students were more hesitant to participate in school discussions, had a harder time communicating with peers and delays in reading skills needed to be addressed. The Georgia Family Connection Partnership recognized these struggles as opportunities to integrate new curriculum and provide individualized care to get students back on track.

Lupita knows the impact R2L has had on not only her son’s life, but her own. She gives the program credit for helping her family learn things she did not think were possible.

“Readers 2 Leaders is made for children like Aaron,” Lupita said. “His first language was not English, and his parents do not speak English, either.” Lupita continues, “although I had studied English, I had never been able to divide a word into syllables, and I did not know everything that they are teaching me right now.”

Access to new books is a critical component of literacy education. Children need new materials regularly to help them build new skills and create reading progress. But rereading books plays a similarly important role in the development of reading fluency. Without guided support, students may not know what to do when they read new materials or revisit their favorite titles. Reading Allies recognized this and created a reading program that emphasizes both practices.

Educators need to learn how to teach children to read – a professional skill that requires intensive training and time spent with early readers. Learning to read also requires intensive training, and progress can stall if students aren’t engaged with the process year-round. Memphis Teacher Residency sought to meet educator and student needs by adjusting its summer camp curriculum and processes to meet current needs.

Across the country, there are a multitude of highly skilled reading specialists who help young children build critical literacy skills. These educators live in big cities, rural communities and small towns – but constraints on their time limit the number of children who can access their services. Auburn Youth Programs recognized that online learning could increase the bandwidth of literacy educators, and they tapped into a digital resource network to ensure as many students as possible could make meaningful connections with literacy teachers online.

Trained educators have access to resources and industry knowledge to help students learn how to read. But parents are expected to continue education at home, often without resources and usually without educational theory in their back pockets. The United Way of the Plains recruited the help of passionate women to change that dynamic in Southern Kansas.

Families who live in rural communities are less likely to have access to diverse technology, which poses increasing challenges as educational resources become increasingly digitized. The gaps were rapidly exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Without the equipment needed to operate online programming, many rural students and their families were unable to participate in the educational and social Zoom events.

This year, the Early Learning Coalition of the Big Bend Region (ELC) set out to improve literacy rates by reimagining their services and creating technology-independent solutions to reach traditional underserved rural families.

Literacy is one of the few academic skills students have to master during their primary years – there is little time to catch up if you’re not reading as a young elementary schooler. In fact, studies show that there is a direct correlation between 3rd grade reading proficiency and the likelihood of graduating high school. To help more children eventually toss their caps and turn their tassels, former Ohio State football players founded The 2nd and 7 Foundation.

Streets Ministries faced a tough reality: 61% of Memphis third grade students are not reading at grade reading level. The proportionality is even higher for children of immigrants or for children for whom English is a second language.

The largest population of Hispanic and Latinx citizens in Memphis live in zip code 38122 – one of two major communities served by Streets Ministries. Studies show that Hispanic elementary school-aged children in this zip code are more likely to have immigrant parents, meaning a decreased likelihood of English being read or spoken at home. Additionally, every child Streets Ministries serves is economically disadvantaged, compounding language challenges.

Did you know that the first 2,000 days of a child’s life – from birth to kindergarten – are the most critical to emotional, physical and mental well-being? During this time, more than one million new neural connections form in the brain every second.

When a student begins kindergarten, their level of readiness not only affects their development as a whole, but their future academic and personal success as well. But unequal opportunities in communities around the country leave some kids feeling ready and others behind before they even start school. That’s why Ready for School, Ready for Life – a connected, innovative early childhood system of care – was created, to better support Guilford County’s youngest children and ensure their kindergarten readiness.

Students don’t stop learning when they leave school – they experience the world through learning. Oftentimes, it’s the lessons learned at home that are the most impactful on a child. When parents are able to reinforce school lessons at home, students benefit. The inverse is also true. When the resources available at home don’t mirror those at school, students can fall behind.

During the school year, teachers work diligently to engage students whose home life isn’t conducive for continued learning. This work is essential, as research from The Annie E. Casey Foundation lists “counteracting family stressors” as one of the five factors that indicates the likelihood of literacy by grade three. But when the final school bell rings and summer break begins, challenges are exacerbated.

Read Fort Worth realized that meeting students where they were would be the key to combating family stressors and providing needed resources and materials. So they packed up their backpacks, tied their laces and started knocking on doors.

Houston, we don’t just have a problem. We have a crisis. Large numbers of children in Houston, particularly those from low-income families, are reading below grade level in their first few years of school and are failing to catch up.

That’s why organizations like Literacy Now are investing in children’s literacy skills and engaging their parents to support learning at home. Doing so can make a difference in the inequities many young children face, contributing to their long-term success and equipping them to fulfill their potential.

Houston, we don’t just have a problem. We have a crisis. Large numbers of children in Houston, particularly those from low-income families, are reading below grade level in their first few years of school and are failing to catch up.

That’s why organizations like Literacy Now are investing in children’s literacy skills and engaging their parents to support learning at home. Doing so can make a difference in the inequities many young children face, contributing to their long-term success and equipping them to fulfill their potential.

In the rural town of Pine Hill, Alabama, resides F. S. Ervin Elementary School. Almost half of Pine Hill residents live below the poverty line, and essentially all F. S. Ervin students live in poverty. Wilcox County, in which Pine Hill resides, has the highest unemployment rate in Alabama and students progress at slower rates academically than students in other areas of the state.

Educators at F. S. Ervin know that literacy is one way out of poverty for many of their students and that a child’s socioeconomic status has no bearing on their reading capacity. They set out to create exciting strategies to both increase access to materials and build core competencies to increase students’ reading comprehension scores.

When students struggle with reading, they often feel unsuccessful and lose confidence. If these feelings go unaddressed, the idea that they are inadequate could follow them for the rest of their lives. In fact, one guidance counselor reported:

“Self-esteem was pretty much universally lacking in my students. Many had regressed and not made as much progress as they are accustomed to making, resulting in negative feelings about themselves.”

The faculty of Webber Elementary have always understood the importance of equipping all students with the proper literacy and foundational skills. Reading is not reserved for children of specific socioeconomic backgrounds – it is a universal right that should be accessible to all. They see these figures as a call to action, one that they take seriously and approach with tenacity and creativity.

In 2020, students pursuing virtual schooling had limited options for personalized growth. While we know that a student-focused approach is the most impactful way to promote personal gains, challenges caused by COVID-19 and virtual classrooms made this approach nearly impossible. Like many schools across the country, Brantley Elementary School found its students’ reading proficiency scores weren’t where they should be in early 2021.

Read2Succeed tutor Melissa Sprangler was met with a challenge upon tutoring first grade student Shedly. Shedly was often disinterested in the lesson, opting not to engage. And he wasn’t very talkative, sometimes using as little as one or two words with his classroom teacher.

However, all that changed when Sprangler introduced Shedly to the Dive, Dolphin! vocabulary book. One of the words in the book was “rivers,” and when Shedly heard that, his eyes lit up.

For many students, perfect attendance isn’t always a reality. Home life circumstances, family dynamics and other factors create obstacles for some students that prevent them from attending school as often as they should. Second grader Klaire was no exception.

The Early Learning Coalition of Escambia County (ELCEC), Florida, is familiar with the “summer slide” – or the learning loss that often occurs while students are out of school for summer break. All children can experience reading loss, with students losing, on average, one month’s worth of school year learning during their time out of the classroom. Combating the summer slide requires guardians to read a variety of age-appropriate books with their children.

Read the ways our partner in Escambia County developed solutions to support their students in this impact story.

As a member of the Coaching for Literacy Coaches’ Council, Florida State Associate Head Coach Stan Jones is always quick to answer the call to host a #Fight4Literacy Game. Because of his and FSU’s commitment to education, CFL has been able to conduct a #Fight4Literacy Game presented by International Paper since the campaign started during the 2017-2018 season.

These campaigns have allowed CFL to grant more than $4,000 to the ELC of the Big Bend Region. This year, International Paper is helping to create more opportunity for students in Tallahassee and throughout the panhandle by matching all donations from fans and local businesses. Keep reading to learn how ELC of the Big Bend used grant money from last season’s campaign. Inspired and want to get involved? Click here to learn more.