World Bank Awards Top Winner for Scaling Literacy Innovation Worldwide

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Ilene Rosenthal, CEO
202-338-1223
Ilene@footsteps2brilliance.com

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2021 – In a highly competitive pool of 4,000 global submissions, only one digital education solution was recognized by the World Bank and the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania. The jointly developed global competition, Ideas for Action (I4A), provides a one-of-a-kind platform for solving the world’s most pressing development challenges. The education award went to ELAN, a project of Teach the World Foundation.

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City of Covington Uses Footsteps2Brilliance to Unite the Community for Early Literacy During COVID

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 28 – Covington, KY.

Mayor Joe Meyer of Covington, Kentucky and his team have implemented an innovative approach to Early Literacy. Read Ready Covington is a city-wide coalition that engages all sectors of the community in maximizing early literacy efforts. Their coalition recognizes Footsteps2Brilliance as a vital component in its collective impact approach, especially during this past year as part of Covid-19 virtual learning. Read Ready Covington’s goals include increasing the percentage of children who enter kindergarten ready to learn and read proficiently by third grade. These goals align perfectly with Footsteps2Brilliance resources and are boosted by another City of Covington initiative called Covington Connect, a citywide free WIFI network to address the digital divide.

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How School Leaders Are Leveraging Technology to Accelerate Student Learning

Washington, D.C. - On Tuesday, Feb. 9th at 3:30 EST, The Campaign for Grade Level Reading will showcase Dr. Barbara Nemko, Napa County Superintendent of Schools and Footsteps2Brilliance, to discuss how Napa County and other organizations throughout the nation have used technology to prepare children for kindergarten and stem learning loss caused by the pandemic.

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Hawthorne School District Receives $100,000 Grant from GRoW @ Annenberg Foundation for Citywide Literacy Support

Hawthorne School District is pleased to announce that it has received a grant from GRoW @ Annenberg in the amount of $100,000 for the innovative work that Superintendent Dr. Helen Morgan is doing to support citywide literacy. This grant will be used to extend the successful literacy partnership the district developed with Footsteps2Brilliance®.  It provides access to Footstep2Brilliance’s proven bilingual pre-K to 3rd grade literacy solution to every family in the city of Hawthorne.

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ALAS Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Footsteps2Brilliance CEO, Ilene Rosenthal, has joined the ALAS Advisory Council based in Washington, DC.  ALAS, the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents, is committed to serving the educational needs of all students with an emphasis on Latin/o/a/x youth by building capacity, promoting best practices, and transforming educational institutions.

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College Bound from Birth

The language gap between rich and poor children begins at birth.  In fact, Stanford University research found that 2-year-old children of lower income families may already be 6 months behind in language development.  Early learning gives the strongest return on investment, providing a clear path to a college education and career success.

Footsteps2Brilliance is excited to announce our partnership with College Bound from Birth. Designed and delivered by the early childhood education experts at Collaborative for Children, College Bound from Birth is a three-year quality improvement program offered at no cost in selected neighborhoods throughout Texas.  Program components aim to improve the quality of early learning, leading to kindergarten readiness.  Nobel Prize winning economist, James Heckman, whose research has proven the economic benefits of quality early learning, serves on the Collaborative for Children’s Advisory Board.

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The Challenge of Online Learning for Young Children

The COVID pandemic is affecting how we educate our students. Remote instruction has not only become necessary, it’s requiring schools to meet new standards that often tie directly to funding. The fact is that online learning has created new challenges for our general population of students and creates even more challenges for our most vulnerable students.

 

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Transform the Summer Slide into the Summer Climb

Summer is right around the corner and we are so proud to have contributed to student achievement this school year. Did you know that Footsteps2Brilliance can also be part of your strategy to combat the "Summer Slide?" Whether you are organizing summer school, or creating take-home packets for your parents, or even planning a school-wide reading challenge, we have resources to help you make summer a time to climb. Here are a few strategies to help students soar this summer:

  1. Use the 4 weeks of intensive reading lessons in  Summer ClimbTM for your summer school
  2. Send home Reading Race progress charts and set a class, school, or district-wide reading challenge
  3. Announce a lofty reading goal and prepare to celebrate success

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