Florida Grade-Level Reading Campaign Awarded Let’s Get Children Reading Grant
Success all along the education continuum begins with strong language and literacy skills. From pre-kindergarten to third grade, children learn to read by identifying letter sounds which leads to letter blending, and eventually reading proficiency. Grade-level reading ability is critical as students progress beyond third grade and are challenged with increasingly complex subject matter.
A cornerstone of reading fluency and comprehension is practice. A grant recently awarded to the Florida Grade Level Reading Campaign by Worldreader intends to support Florida’s young readers by providing free access to their application, BookSmart, where students can enjoy over 1,000 books electronically. Florida GLR Campaign Director Jenn Faber stated, “We are honored to have been selected from a highly competitive pool of grant applicants and look forward to engaging our local and state level partners in increasing family access to books as well as easy-to-use early literacy activities.”
Focusing on the critical third-grade reading milestone, the Florida Grade-Level Reading Campaign engages public policy and community leaders, educators, and the philanthropic community to advocate for best practices that increase reading proficiency. “Helios Education Foundation is focused on closing education equity gaps and that starts with a strong foundation of language and literacy,” said Paul J. Luna, President and CEO. “In partnership with the Florida Grade-Level Reading Campaign we strive to ensure more students start kindergarten ready to learn and meet the critical third-grade reading benchmark.”