Aiming to increase literacy of area students in Grades K-12, the Mobilizing Literacy program is taking a moment to review its successes over the past five years.
The program serves 11 school districts within three area counties: Coffey, Lyon and Osage. Each of the 11 school districts had the freedom to choose one or more of three goals and strategies to meet the goals. The payoff? There was a 34% increase in the number of students attending preschool, and over 86% of kindergartners in fall 2020 had attended a pre-kindergarten program.
One thing all of the school districts agreed to do was to increase and expand ways to involve families in their children’s education.
“The Mobilizing Literacy initiative has been a game changer in our district's ability to help students enter school ready for kindergarten. It has had a tremendously positive impact,” said Troy Hutton, superintendent of USD 420 Osage City Schools.
School districts chose from various options of ways to support childhood literacy, with some selecting to provide financial aid to assist families with preschool costs for and provided bus transportation to get preschoolers to and from home as well as to and from daycares.
“The Mobilizing Literacy grant has allowed us in Burlington to connect the school district with our two local preschools and create collaborations to help kids be better prepared to enter kindergarten ready to learn,” said Craig Marshall, superintendent of USD 244 Burlington.
Another strategy used by most of the districts was providing a summer experience of one to two weeks for entering preschoolers, kindergarteners and first graders. This summer learning strategy allowed the teachers the opportunity to see students’ strengths and needs and have the children used to classrooms and routines.
“Mobilizing Literacy has made, and continues to make, a lasting impact on our learners,” said Allison Anderson-Harder,
Superintendent of USD 253 Emporia Public Schools. “Children, parents and providers have been given books, resources, training, guidance and support to increase not only children's literacy skills, but help parents better understand how important they are as their children's first teacher now and throughout their lives.”
Private schools also benefited, with pandemic emergency funds provided to private pre-kindergarten centers in Emporia.
The focus remains fixed on kindergarten readiness, summer learning that supports school readiness and improving collaboration among childcare providers, preschool teachers and kindergarten teachers.
Each district was required to work with a consultant assigned by Emporia State University to assist with the development of the district’s plan, goals and strategies to address the challenges in their communities. One constant across all participating districts was to increase the number of students meeting or exceeding third grade reading standards. More about the program can be found at www.emporia.edu/teachers-college/centers-services/kmlc/mobilizing-literacy/.
Kansas School Districts using Mobilizing Literacy:
Coffey County
- USD 243 Lebo-Waverly
- USD 244 Burlington
- USD 245 Southern Coffey County
Lyon County
- USD 251 North Lyon County
- USD 252 Southern Lyon County
- USD 253 Emporia
Osage County
- USD 421 Lyndon
- USD 420 Osage City
- USD 434 Santa Fe Trail
- USD 454 Burlingame
- USD 456 Marais des Cygnes Valley