Edtech Nonprofit ReadWorks Celebrates 10 Years and Doubles Down on COVID-19 Learning Loss

News provided by

Jan 06, 2022, 11:14 ET

BROOKLYN, N.Y., Jan. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In just ten years, the edtech nonprofit ReadWorks has built a world-class technology platform that brings evidence-based content, curricular supports, and other features to educators to support their students' reading comprehension goals–for FREE. Since its inception, 5 million teachers and 29.5 million students in 92% of schools across the country have used ReadWorks.

"Over my past 10 years as Principal, Readworks has provided an essential resource for my students and teachers that allowed us access to high quality, diverse texts and resources that we otherwise would not have had access to," Dawn DeCosta, Principal at Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School in New York City, said. "Being able to acquire texts at multiple reading levels so all students felt the confidence of an entry point while teachers had the opportunity to meet the needs of their individual students was a game-changer in our reading instruction."

Over the past year and a half, ReadWorks has responded to the rapid changes in education caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and saw a massive surge in demand with over 400,000 new educators signing up. ReadWorks' ability to respond so effectively and quickly was a testament to the power and stability of the platform and the knowledge of its staff. The pandemic exposed the growing gaps in opportunity and access within the education system, and ReadWorks' future focus is designed to help mitigate those gaps in impact and equity.

"After ten years of growing our library of texts, digital tools, and our reach, we're now shifting to focus on addressing the increased learning loss caused by the pandemic," Terry Bowman, Executive Director, said. "Our team and our community of supporters are committed to even further supporting teachers and students, meeting them where they are on an individual level."

Numerous foundations and corporations have generously supported ReadWorks in its first decade. These include the New Schools Venture Fund, Microsoft, the Carson Family Charitable Trust, the Cleveland H. Dodge Foundation, the Robert and Ardis James Foundation, Robin Hood, Tracelink, Travelers, Pitney Bowes, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Tsunami Foundation, and many more.

"My Foundation has been supporting ReadWorks from the beginning," said Anson Beard, Jr., Trustee at ReadWorks' longtime supporter, the Tsunami Foundation. "There are a lot of great causes out there that do wonderful things, but they have various limitations of scale. ReadWorks has a universal, unlimited scale."

ReadWorks is currently seeking funding for new projects to further support students during this extremely challenging time and to help mitigate learning loss, including developing and distributing tutoring materials, growing its online library of over 5,500 texts, and improving offline mode for those who lack adequate internet access. If your company or foundation is interested in supporting the over 13.1 million students who rely on ReadWorks each year, please reach out to [email protected].

Contact:
Becca Vaughn
ReadWorks
[email protected]

About ReadWorks
At ReadWorks, our mission is to ensure that all children become successful, joyful readers by working to bridge the gap between research and practice in reading instruction. Log on to ReadWorks.org to access our free resources.

SOURCE ReadWorks