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.