2023-Annual-Report-052223-Digital-FINAL-Updated-Single-Pages - Flipbook - Page 20
Greater Nashville is facing a literacy crisis. It’s been this way for decades.
Three out of four third graders in Davidson, Hickman and Houston counties are
not reading on grade level. But this isn’t just any metric or an arbitrary mark of
success. We know that third grade is the turning point when kids go from learning
to read—to reading to learn. So, if they haven’t developed those basic reading
skills by third grade, they’re likely going to struggle to solve math problems,
complete science experiments and understand their history lessons. When kids
don’t meet this milestone, the impact it can have on their future is devastating.
Children who have not developed basic literacy skills by the time they enter third
grade are three to four times more likely to drop out in later years, will likely earn
half the annual income of their peers and have higher incidences of arrest or
incarceration—often keeping them trapped in a cycle of poverty that sticks with
families for generations.
Inspiring a Love of Reading
Preparing Students for Kindergarten
Having access to a variety of age-appropriate
All kids deserve to start kindergarten ready
books at home is so important—starting
to learn. But too many early learners in our
at birth. That’s why Imagination Library
community face circumstances that dim
of Middle Tennessee partners with the
their opportunities to start on the right foot.
Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation and the
For more than a decade, United Way’s Read
Dollywood Foundation to deliver high-quality
to Succeed program has been working
books each month straight to children’s
to make sure kids in our early learning
mailboxes at no cost to families. Books are
centers receive equitable, high-quality
personalized with the child’s name, making
early education. We do this by empowering
books exciting and inspiring a love for
educators and providing professional
reading at an early age.
development opportunities to build literacy
and social-emotional skills in the classroom.
