Community Literacy Solutions

Marion Waldman is the Founder of Teach My Kid to Read (TMKTR), the first nonprofit to offer widespread, community literacy initiatives through the public libraries. As a parent of a child who struggled to read, Marion recognized a gap in the community to support families of early and struggling readers that couldn't afford tutors. In the first year of launching The Road to Decode, TMKTR partnered with nearly 50 libraries throughout New York to demonstrate how libraries can be resources for all families by learning about and stocking resources.

Marion has worked for most of the large educational publishers in new product development, marketing, and content acquisitions. She has dreamed up and initiated new publishing programs and products, some of which are main-stays in education today.

Marion has a BA in English and History from Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York and an MBA from University of Maryland, University College.

Two-thirds of fourth-graders in the United States are not reading proficiently. Reading issues do not discriminate. Access to the right reading instruction and access to the right resources discriminate. COVID has exposed the glaring inequities in our educational system, and movements like Black Lives Matters have expressed that these inequities are no longer acceptable. Nowhere in education are the disparities more glaring than in literacy. The fourth-graders that struggle to read are less likely to graduate from high school and more likely to suffer from emotional and mental health issues, utilize public assistance, and end up in the criminal justice system. Parents with the means hire expensive tutors. Working with libraries, our initiative helps librarians learn about and stock resources that anyone interested in literacy education can use to help more kids read proficiently. Families and caregivers can help children before they struggle, and families of struggling readers have options.

Literacy affects everything. Thirty-two million adults in the United States are currently considered illiterate. Two thirds of fourth-graders in the United States are not reading proficiently, and one-in-five of every child is diagnosed with a reading issue like dyslexia. With the right reading instruction and interventions, ninety-five percent of all children can become skilled readers. The answer is simple. “Teach My Kid to Read.” Our solution is to enable the community to help more children learn to read, starting with access to the right resources.

In New York State, there are 755 public libraries. Libraries are community hubs for literacy, and librarians are often the first-responders for families of early and struggling readers. Still, librarians are not routinely educated about foundational reading skills, and how different resources can help all children learn to read. Our programming shows how working with the libraries to create awareness of reading issues like dyslexia and educating librarians about how they can be better resources for all readers are essential steps towards more widespread literacy solutions.

Many libraries were closed in 2020, so The Road to Decode has pivoted
online and expanded beyond New York for October 2020. The Road to
Decode provides librarians with program materials, information about
decodable books, social-media kits, incentives from collaborators, and
virtual and online events. In October we will offer a free minicourse
for professional development. We are creating, in collaboration, an
early-literacy train-the-trainer program that offers libraries and communities
additional information that they can then to give parents or caregivers
to support their children’s literacy development. All programming is
created for digital and curbside options.

The aim is for libraries to better serve all families by learning about and recommending resources that help all children learn to read, create decodable book sections that enable more equitable access to resources, and initiate programming on their own or through our train-the-trainer models that enable emergent and struggling readers to learn to become skilled readers.

Parents in particular are shouldering more responsibility as schools reimagine what the upcoming school year will look like.  Even in this environment, libraries can serve as community hubs and make access to decodable books, structured-literacy-based materials, and dyslexia resources available online to empower all stakeholders.

Since our program launched in 2019, we have served families of early and struggling readers in the following New York Counties:

•Albany

•Monroe

•Nassau

•Rensselaer

•Saratoga

•Suffolk

•Warren

•Washington

•Westchester

In the first phase of our program, we measured impact based on whether parents or caregivers took out the books the libraries ordered or asked about more programming.

Before we present to a library system or a library, we recruit volunteers within the communities. Volunteers are parents, grandparents and sometimes teachers of struggling readers. Volunteers tell librarians their stories and work with the libraries to order the right resources and help libraries create programs that improve literacy outcomes for all children. While our strategy is to scale globally, our solutions are tailored locally. For book donations, we work with the library systems to make sure we prioritize libraries in the most economically disadvantaged communities.

Since going online in 2020, we have expanded to several states through libraries that signed up on their own and volunteers committed to growing the programming.

We know from decades of reading research that ninety-five percent of all children have the cognitive ability to become skilled readers. Yet, two-third of all fourth graders are not reading proficiently, and 32 million adults are illiterate. All children benefit when they learn to read based on the science of reading. Our project focuses on educating families early, when the right approach to reading has the most significant effect, and to offer families of struggling readers solutions besides expensive tutors that are inaccessible to many families.

As a parent of a child with dyslexia, I had many discussions over the years with  parents about why librarians couldn't help us. I would go to the library, wondering if the librarian could recommend books that would help my daughter learn to read, and I would search for that one book that my child would actually want to read. Fast forward a few year, and my child is receiving reading interventions, and using decodable or sound-aloud books to practice her skills. I wondered why libraries didn't carry these books that our tutors recommended and that seemed so hard to find.

Shortly after Teach My Kid to Read was founded, a board member and I were discussing a library that posted a picture of a "dyslexia section" they had set up in their library. The dyslexia section consisted of decodable or sound alound books. Our board member wrote to the library and asked if they would consider changing the section to "Decodable Books" since they benefit all children. They made the suggested change!

We wondered if the reason libraries weren't better resources for early and struggling readers was because nobody asked them or educated them. We were right.

Our first Pre-K progress report includes many exclamation points. Your daughter is off to a great start learning to read! As a parent, I was surprised to hear our daughter was doing so well. It seemed like she couldn’t recognize sound patterns or associate sounds with letters, but she was only 4. Fast forward to kindergarten, and her progress reports indicated that she needed a “little” extra help. By the end of first grade, she received an Educational Evaluation that suggested a language disability.

Had we understood more about foundational reading skills, signs of struggling readers and had access to affordable resources that help all children learn to read it would have been a life-changer. Our daughter "could" have received a full evaluation from the district and the services she needed during the critical early years when early reading skills have the most impact. We could have been better parent advocates by understanding what services she needed and even working with her at home. Most importantly, the frustration and shame of trying to learn to read using instruction that is not effective for someone identified as having dyslexia may not have happened to our daughter.

Teach My Kid to Read received non profit status in 2018. We are a leading advocacy and programming organization for dyslexia and reading issues in the state of New York. In our advocacy work, we helped bring together all of the major parent groups in New York State to work in coalition. I represented the coalition at The New York State Joint Budget Hearing on Education. At the state level, our legislators credit us with helping to initiate policy change about dyslexia in New York.

To drive change, our focus has been on wide-spread community programming, as opposed to just policy work. We believe that both advocacy and policy are critical for change.  We understand acutely that change comes from many stakeholders including community, individuals and institutions. We are the first organization to connect the dots between the community and education for literacy solutions and now with the line between the home and education less clear, the need for leadership is dire.

My background is creating learning solutions in educational publishing and technology. My strength is networking, motivating and leading and developing and initiating strategy. Even though our program is new, we presented the program at several conferences and it is considered a potential model for widespread community literacy solutions.

In March of 2020, we had met with several of the key legislators to support the pending dyslexia legislation in New York. For the first time, our parent literacy community unified, and we had the support of the significant legislators who would move the bills forward. Our job was to demonstrate support from the major stakeholders throughout the state of New York. S

After COVID, all of our advocacy work and pursuant funding came to a halt. Libraries were closing, and parents were becoming teachers.  Our advocacy strategy did not fit in a changing world where education was uncertain, and our library program wasn’t relevant to closed libraries. Yet, even more, children weren’t learning to read, and new bills were necessary to address the inequities and complexities that COVID exposed.

We are currently revising all our advocacy work, and drafting recommendations to speak to additional issues such as access to resources, Internet access and other gaps necessary to address in today’s uncertain times. We are in the process of moving all of our programmings online and virtual to accommodate whatever libraries need to ensure access to more of their families.

"Can you help my granddaughter learn to read?"

 "I want my daughter and me to be part of something big."

These are quotes from some of our volunteers who found us through word of mouth.  After years of struggling to get their children the help they need and often fighting with schools, parents, grandparents, and caregivers found an ally in the librarians. Besides creating awareness and educating librarians, our programming enables families to take positive action in helping to create more literacy solutions.

Through both programming and advocacy, Teach My Kid to Read has become a leader in New York in the dyslexia and literacy community. In February 2020, in coalition with several other parent organizations in New York, I spoke at The New York State Joint Budget Hearing on Education about why our dyslexia legislation is essential to families throughout New York. On Live Stream television, I held up a petition signed by 5,000 families in New York, asking our legislators to support dyslexia legislation. In March 2020, I spoke at Dyslexia Awareness Day in Albany, NY, about why we need more community literacy solutions. The next day I presented to all libraries in The Southern Adirondack Library System.

"We need to connect the dots in the community."

"I wish libraries were more of a resource for families of struggling readers."

For years, those of us in the literacy community talked about how to “break out of the choir.” In 2019, as a new nonprofit, Teach My Kid to Read strategically engaged libraries as partners to solve a significant literacy issue.

TMKTR is the first organization to target public libraries as community hubs for widespread community literacy initiatives. We developed a training program for library systems or individual libraries that we delivered in person. Due to COV19, we are rapidly scaling our library system presentation to an online environment.

Our work provides awareness and education so that librarians can be better resources for families of early and struggling readers. We provide practical information so that they can initiative changes quickly. One outcome of our presentations is that libraries learn about and stock resources such as decodable or sound-aloud books that help all children learn to read. We provide guidance and materials so librarians can set up their programming to create events or their solutions.

While we provide a foundation about dyslexia and foundational skills for all readers, we encourage librarians to work with their communities to pursue specific solutions. We offer widespread solutions that create local impact.

The goal of our programming is to create awareness of reading issues like dyslexia and to educate the community about foundational skills that help all children learn to read. If foundational skills were as ubiquitous as The ABC song, fewer children would struggle to read, and those that did struggle would be identified early and have option to help them become skilled readers.

Our theory of change is transformative in that our impact creates awareness and educates literacy stakeholders through the libraries.  

Initial Participant Outcome

·        More children have access to resources that help all children become skilled readers, but are typically hard to find in libraries.

·        Librarians help parents of early and struggling readers learn about tools that help struggling readers, and all children read independently.

·        Librarians understand more about dyslexia and what type of reading instruction and interventions help struggling readers.

·        Children at risk for reading issues are identified before they struggle.

  Intermediate/Longer-Term Outcomes

·        Librarians and parents influence better reading instruction and interventions in schools.

·        Less children struggle to read or enter special education.

1. We currently partner with 50 libraries in New York that serve average communities of 35,000. Based on 20 percent of the population struggling to read (International Dyslexia Association), our current program serves 350,000 people.

2. For 2020 our goal is 150 libraries within New York-1,050,000 people. Since going online, there are other states (and countries) signed up so goals will adjust.

3. Our five year goal is to initiate the program all over the world and in several language so we contribute to global solutions of illiteracy.

In 2020, TMKTR would like to demonstrate that in a time of change and uncertainty, we can create systematic solutions that are easy to implement and that can serve as a foundation for local impact. Literacy affects everything, and if we can create solutions that libraries, early childhood centers and daycare centers can implement to improve how children learn to read, less children will struggle. Likewise, children that are struggling will have options, and getting the help they need to learn to read will not be limited to whether a family has the means to pay for a tutor.

TMKTR hopes to continue the success of 2019 in an online and virtual environment. We are adding school librarians to the demographics to better connect schools, and also translating our materials to Spanish to reach more of the communities. At the least, we hope to reach one-hundred and fifty libraries. To achieve our goals, we created new systems, databases, to better manage online programming and communication and we continue to evaluate our online processes to improve our systems.

In five years, our goal is to be worldwide and to add services to reach more of the community. We have started testing programming that can translate to systems beyond libraries through train-the-trainer models. Our goal is that the two-thirds of fourth-graders who are not reading proficiently become a relic of the past.

In the next year, our most significant barrier is financial. Even though literacy affects everything, it is a challenging time for the economy and our ability to raise funding will be tested. Other barriers include the uncertainty of education, the state of libraries and keeping our organization soley focused on our mission during a time when everything becomes political.

For financial sustainability, we are assessing ways to move our newer programming into a membership model. We are looking at a basic membership model with a sliding scale for libraries and community centers, and add-on services.

To keep serving the community through the libraries, we plan to create all content for print and online delivery to support whatever the environment will look like.

With educational uncertainty, we will advocate and recommend new policy to address the current climate and connect the dots with our programming.

 We will use collaborators and volunteers to help with capacity and to scale. We have started formalizing more partnerships to enable us to more broadly serve.

KidsRead2Kids is a partner for our new "read-aloud" programming that is part of our train-the-trainer model. We are creating interactive read alouds together in English and Spanish. These videos will model how to read "with' kids.

For handwriting, we have a partnership with ABB Creations, LTD (Itchy's Alphabet) to use their products as part of our early literacy programming.

For resources, we have a partnership with ELEMENO, a technology that enables teachers, parents and librarians to look up a resources based on phonics skill.

We work in coalition with Decoding Dyslexia New York, Dyslexia on Long Island, The Dyslexia Initiative: New York, and Dyslexia Advocates of Western New York. As a coalition, Teach My Kid to Read serves as a spokesperson for these groups in legislative advocacy. For programming, these groups provide volunteers and participate in library system trainings where we include community member stories.

We are a mission partner with The Reading League and support each other's work.

Our business model is to work with librarians and the community to raise awareness and to educate librarians and the community so that librarians, caregivers, parents, or volunteers, can help more children learn to read. We are working on an online minicourse for librarians for October, and we intend to build that course out and add other topics in 2021. We raise funds through online events, sponsorships of our programs, individual donations, and membership fees for guidance, support, and troubleshooting in the programming we offer. We are exploring affiliate agreements and a store as another option to order the materials we recommend in our programming.

For our program materials, we look for sponsorship, we write grants and we seek donations to cover the specific costs. For operational revenue, we are looking at more donors, membership models and affiliate agreements.

Last year we raised all of our funding to support the launch of our program through individual donors. This year, we are in contact with other organizations to support our work. We have been receiving donations from businesses focused on reading and literacy and many in-kind donations. Several of the publishers we work with are participating in virtual events.

We are confident we will raise funds through donations, sponsorships and grants to support our programming costs. We are looking for individual donors to help support our organizational costs so we can pay salaries.

In 2019, the first year of our programming, our expenses were $8,500. Our operating budget for 2020 is revised to reflect moving online and virtual, and purchasing systems to support our goals. Our current operating budget does not include salaries. Details are available upon request.