The month of July comes with impact reports on the past year and ambitious plans for the next year. For me, it always feels important to pause and pull up, to think about the big picture and how our impact is adding color to the picture we’re all trying to craft. For us at Lead to Read KC, that big picture is, of course, literacy.
How would you define literacy? The Cambridge dictionary defines literacy as: the ability to read and write.
When I think about literacy in my own life I would say it is defined by my ability to read my grandmother’s passed down recipe cards, Salmon Rushdie’s latest novel, bell hooks notions of love, and the ponderings of what makes a nation a nation. Literacy is defined in my life by what I can read that allows me to materially make the world around me and my family safer (I know how to operate the more dangerous household machinery), more wondrous (have you read about dinosaurs lately?!), and more comfortable (I’m telling you, my grandmother’s recipe cards are a gift). Being literate has meant I have choices about what I do, how I think, and how I choose to show up in the world everyday.
Literacy to my nine year old looks a lot like Harry Potter, soccer playbooks, and the directions for making slime. It’s so beautiful to see. I want every parent in our city, in our country, and in our world to be able to have the literacy fueled choices I have in my life and to experience the splendor of watching their own children being literate, curious, choice-filled citizens.
Literacy is not a default, evolutionary trait however. It is not like walking, where you turn around one day and see your baby has pulled herself up using the coffee table and from that day on it is off to the races. It is not even like speaking, where “Da Da” comes out after what seems like both a millennia and a blink of an eye. Reading and writing, literacy, is the result of intentional, meaningful, and consistent inputs and actions surrounding a person. Therefore, I think literacy is more fully defined as: a person’s ability to read and write as the direct result of a large number of intentional, meaningful, consistent actions by the literate community surrounding each person. This definition calls us all in to be the literacy champions and support structures of our friends, our neighbors, and our children.
I want Kansas City to be the most literate city in the nation. To deeply take on the reality and responsibility that a literate community can only be the result of a community that is intentionally, meaningfully, and consistently acting to ensure the community is so.
We have a long way to go. With only 21% of 3rd graders in the Kansas City, MO public and charter schools scoring Proficient or Advanced (Source: SchoolSmartKC), 79% of 3rd graders aren’t able to directly access the wonder of Harry Potter, soccer playbooks, and slime directions. Lead to Read KC continues to mobilize our community in service of ensuring 100% of 3rd graders can access literacy and, as a result, the world.
At Lead to Read KC, we focus on four intentional, meaningful, and consistent actions in the service of literacy.
Reading Mentors
We mobilize every sector of our community to read with a child one a week, over their lunch break. The sheer volume of our mentors is why I know Kansas City is well on our way to being the most literate city in the nation.
- 37% more students were paired with Reading Mentors in the 2023-24 school year, which translates to more than 27,000 one-to-one mentoring sessions.
Tutoring
We bring world class, research backed, Science of Reading trained tutors to classrooms across KC. Through this partnership, Lead to Read adds in the KC angle and on the ground support while ensuring that every child is getting direct instruction on foundational reading skills.
- 52% more students received high-dosage tutoring translating to more than 750 area children who were able to improve their reading skills.
Reading Is Everywhere
We ensure a range of books that excite and reflect our community of readers, and soon-to-be readers, is always within reach.
- 54% more books were distributed to the community translating to more than 34,000 reading materials in the hands of kids
Author Partnerships
We leverage the local talent of authors that know and love Kansas City and have a special skill of using books to teach social, emotional skills to work directly with students and schools.
- 51% more students attended author visits translating to more than 1,702 children who benefitted from the positive mental health strategies
Together, we made an impact to be incredibly proud of this year. More of you are reading with us than ever. More students are getting world class tutoring than ever. More books are waiting for kiddos than ever. More author visits are happening than ever. Yes, there’s more work to do, but if any city can do it, it is us.
Please join me in celebrating our impact this past year, using your lunch break once a week to continue it, and spreading the work that Lead to Read KC is asking all sectors and all people in Kansas City to join together and make literacy happen, one book, one lunch break, and one child at a time.
Rhea Muchalla LeGrande
Executive Director
Lead to Read KC