Literacy Now brings meteoric rises in student literacy and confidence

The challenge

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.

The solution

Literacy Now’s goal is to empower Houston students to read on grade level by the end of third grade. The organization serves children from 2 months to 11 years old, as well as their parents, the majority of whom live in low-income communities. Literacy Now’s volunteer mentors work on community sites throughout Houston, providing critical literacy and academic support to families in need.

Thanks to funding from partners like International Paper and events like Coaching for Literacy’s #Fight4Literacy game at the University of Houston, Literacy Now provides reading intervention programs that work to close the gap between a student's reading level and their actual grade level, while simultaneously engaging students’ parents and/or guardians through interactive parent engagement workshops.

Through its reading intervention programs and parent engagement workshops, Literacy Now students saw significant gains in reading foundation skills, with kindergartners realizing a 50% increase, first graders a 74% increase and second graders showing an increase of 92%. Among these metrics of success is perhaps one of the most important indicators of Literacy Now’s impact – a rise of confidence within its programming participants.

The testimony

William, a shy first-grade student at Neff Early Learning Center, mainly kept to himself before joining Literacy Now’s reading intervention program this fall. But after just two weeks of fun, interactive lessons, his mom said that he would wait excitedly for his reading intervention class and the new friends he made there.

“He has really come out of his shell,” recounted William’s mother. “He’s taken a meteoric rise in confidence.”

You can #Fight4Literacy.

Illiteracy impacts every community – it is critical that we all join together to help children locally and around the country. Consider donating to Coaching for Literacy or participating in an upcoming #Fight4Literacy Game. Share this message with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, and follow Coaching for Literacy for information about upcoming events and the fight against illiteracy. We look forward to having you on our team.