Read to Lead

The pandemic exacerbated an already significant problem: middle school students are not developing the literacy, life, and career skills essential for their future success. Educators need tools to address three interrelated challenges: student disengagement, low proficiency in literacy and career skills (problem solving, critical thinking, decision-making, leadership, and collaboration), and lack of career exploration opportunities in middle school.

Read to Lead is an edtech nonprofit that uses game-based learning to empower middle school students to develop critical literacy, social-emotional, and career skills. 

By scaling Read to Lead, we will make it possible for students everywhere to experience a transformational and proven learning model where they read closely, think critically, and solve complex problems. They will lead a diverse team, learn from mistakes in an environment where it is safe to fail and try again,  apply academic and SEL skills to make big decisions, and explore high-potential careers.

RTL helps middle school English teachers address the most intractable challenges facing their students, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic: 

Low Literacy Skills: 7 million middle school students are below proficiency in reading, including 80% of 8th graders living in communities experiencing high poverty (NAEP). Yet, even as little as six extra minutes of reading per day can make the difference between meeting and not meeting grade-level college- and career-readiness benchmarks. (2016, Renaissance Learning)

Disengagement: Decline in student engagement starting in middle school is linked to low academic achievement, low literacy levels, and higher drop-out rates. (2014 Gallup)

Lack of 21st Century Skills: According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, more than one-half of new entrants to the workforce are poorly prepared in problem solving, critical thinking, leadership, and collaboration.

Broken Career Pathways: Middle school youth need opportunities to see themselves in the workforce. They need experiences that help them recognize what they like to do, what they are skilled at, where they belong, and what they need to learn to achieve their career goals. This window of opportunity is brief: exploration of potential career identities often plateaus in 8th grade.  (2019, Connected Learning Alliance)

Read to Lead combines scenario-based learning games with research-based curriculum to ensure middle school students are empowered to succeed in school today and prepared to thrive in high school, college, and their future careers.  

Read to Lead invites students to “be the boss” in virtual workplaces, where they must read closely, think critically, and solve complex problems. Importantly, they must lead, manage, and communicate with a diverse team. 

All of Read to Lead’s learning games, curriculum, project-based learning activities, real-time data dashboards, and on-demand professional development resources are freely accessible through our online learning platform. Read to Lead learning games are featured on platforms such as BrainPOP, PBS Learning, and Clever.

In the course of a learning game, a student reads 3,000+ words of complex grade-level text, completes a series of authentic workplace tasks that includes an embedded literacy assessment (such as editing a project plan), and the completion of an evidence-based writing task (such as writing a memo with supporting evidence to communicate a decision to staff). Every learning game includes 7+ executive decisions, which the student must make based on close reading, evaluating evidence and applying critical thinking skills, and provides exposure to 5+ career roles.

Read to Lead is specifically designed to support equity and historically underserved student populations. 82% of Read to Lead students nationwide attend Title I schools, 26% identify as Black, 26% identify as Latinx, and 16% identify as Indigenous or other people of color. Over 80% of our students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, 60% are struggling readers, 15% are English Language Learners, and 20% are special education students. Participating students consistently improve their literacy, life, and career skills.

Taking a leadership role in a professional community is a profound experience for the young people who participate in our programs. RTL puts students from all backgrounds into positions of power and authority, with game characters that reflect the diversity of the communities we serve. This combination of student agency and diverse representation matters deeply in giving Black, Latino, and low-income students the ability to see themselves as leaders today and in their future careers.

In 2020-21 we have seen a significant growth in demand for Read to Lead, driven by the need for free, effective, and relevant resources to develop literacy and leadership skills that has been accelerated in the wake of the pandemic.
 We have seen new participation in under-resourced communities nationwide, and especially in the South and Midwest, where there were few resources in place or infrastructure to support shifts to hybrid and distance learning models. 

We offer all of our learning games, resources, and curriculum at no charge, and we design learning experiences in close collaboration with the students and teachers we serve. Our partnerships with schools and organizations in low-income communities inform the development of our games and educator resources with lessons learned from working with high need students. 

For example, over the past year we prioritized innovations that further promote equity, such as translation features to support English Language Learners, offline projects to help students take the leadership skills from the game into their communities, new features that support SEL skill development that are especially important in the wake of the extended school closures during the pandemic, and guidance for teachers in using the diverse career worlds of RTL to broaden student understanding of “other” and navigate conversations about racism and bias.

One additional example of how we innovate in response to our teacher and student community is ‘Read to Lead: Live!’, a live webinar series launched in 2020-21. Our educators shared that they were looking for ways to build from Read to Lead and engage their students more deeply in career exploration by connecting them with real-world leaders. We saw strong alignment with our impact model, and rapidly developed a format that would be free and virtually accessible, and hosted inspiring conversations with leaders such as Stacey Abrams, Misty Copeland, and Dr. Wayne Riley. 

Read to Lead was designed with middle school educators as a solution for engaging their students - particularly those from communities who face historic and ongoing barriers to opportunity - in developing literacy, life, and career skills.

Our goal is to provide every student and teacher access to our transformational learning model through our free and open platform, and that proved essential for teachers using Read to Lead in remote, hybrid, and physical learning environments. We moved quickly to provide new resources for parents and additional project-based learning resources in response to the needs that were accentuated by the pandemic.

Classroom, Inc. is at a critical turning point as we reinvent and rebrand our organization as Read to Lead in 2021. 

In the 2020-21 school year, 50,000 students are using Read to Lead across all 50 states through our open learning platform, and we also partner with schools in organizations in Birmingham, New York City, and Los Angeles to inform the continuous improvement of our learning experiences in collaboration with teachers and students. 

The need for Read to Lead is urgent - reflected by the 47% growth in students served since before the pandemic - and we are poised to continue to expand the reach and impact of Read to Lead. Our goal is to serve 10,000 teachers and 250,000 students by 2023.

Our leadership team brings expertise in educational product development, learning science, educator support, career exploration, and curriculum that supports literacy and SEL skill development. 

While there are many edtech tools on the market, only Read to Lead provides teachers with a holistic model for solving the middle school engagement and achievement problem—combining literacy, social emotional learning, and career exploration at the critical middle school moment. No other solution combines rigorous reading and writing experiences, game-based learning in immersive workplace scenarios, and opportunities to apply academic and SEL skills. 

In 2020 RTL learning platform received a 5-star rating in an independent review by Common Sense Education: “A great middle school choice for integrating literacy skills with real-life scenarios and careers. Read to Lead is a rare combination of simulation, reading skill practice, and SEL integration. Through the context of managing staff, overseeing services and resources, and being involved in the community, students apply their reading and writing skills to several different career fields, all while interacting with a diverse cast of characters.” 

We can contribute catalytic impact because there are few existing options that measure the development of SEL skills and early career exploration effectively. The unique scenario-based model of Read to Lead creates data sets on student decision making and that can be leveraged to better understand student formation of 21st century skills and career identities and aspirations.

In addition, by scaling our learning model and sharing the learning science and  practices that make it successful, we can contribute to demonstrating the importance of immersive, culturally relevant, multimodal learning experiences that can drive significantly better student learning outcomes than traditional drill and kill models.

Read to Lead currently serves 50,000 students, and achieved 47% growth relative to students served prior to the pandemic. 

Our goal in 2021-22 is to serve 100,000 students, building on the increased demand for Read to Lead as reflected by new teachers registering for our platform.

In five years, Read to Lead will serve at least 1,000,000 students, leveraging a new generation of Read to Lead learning experiences and tools to accelerate the growth of our community and our impact.

Read to Lead is designed to help educators improve student literacy, life, and career skills through a holistic learning model. We will evaluate the impact of Read to Lead through a multi-method approach that includes analysis of in-game data, educator and student surveys and interviews, and third-party assessment tools.

In addition to achieving our scale goals, our indicators of successfully achieving impact are:

(1) Engagement in Literacy, SEL, and Career Exploration: In Read to Lead, we will track time spent reading and number of words read, the best predictors of students’ reading skills, as well as the choices students make when faced with decision points designed to the CASEL Core SEL framework of social emotional skills. Openness to career exploration plateaus in 8th grade, so students also must be given earlier insight into future career possibilities and the connection to what they are learning in school today. Our benchmarks are for students participating in to read at least 3,000 words of rigorous nonfiction text (including tier 2 & 3 vocabulary), make at least 7 workplace decisions, and gain exposure to at least 5 careers within our multi-dimensional learning model.

(2) Improvement in Literacy, SEL, and Career Exploration: As measured by student and teacher surveys and interviews, our benchmark is for at least 80% of participating students to improve their literacy skills (reading confidence, motivation, and proficiency), social emotional skills (social awareness, responsible decision making, relationship building, and empathy), and awareness of career opportunities.

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Our leadership team brings diverse backgrounds and skill sets to bear on the problem we are working to solve - including classroom teaching experience, leadership roles in high growth edtech companies, and management of professional development and curriculum strategies at the school and district level - and as we pursue growth and develop new products, we share a commitment to doing so through a thoughtful approach that prioritizes impact.

Executive Director Christina Oliver’s leadership of Classroom, Inc. is rooted in her personal experiences as a first generation college graduate, a former middle school teacher, and a parent to bi-racial middle school students. She understands how pivotal the middle school moment is, and brings a deep commitment to give young people a chance to have a positive experience with literacy and build the agency to become confident readers and leaders. Among the 5 other Leadership Team members who will lead this project, four identify as women and two identify as Black.

Project Team:

-CHRISTINA OLIVER, Executive Director (ReadWorks, Urban Assembly, middle school teacher in NYC public schools)

-KEVIN BEDEAU, VP of Product Strategy (Kaplan Test Prep, Macmillan Higher Ed, and Amplify)

-KWAMARA THOMPSON, Managing Director of Programs and Partnership (Newark Public Schools Teacher Leader Institute, the New Leaders Emerging Leaders Program, and Education Pioneers)

-JULIANA HESS, Director of Research and Evaluation (NYC Outward Bound Schools, Educate!)

-ALISON TEPPER, Director of Content and Curriculum (Achievement First teacher, Amplify, Fulbright teaching scholar)

-COURTNEY GACONA, Director of Marketing and Growth (Nearpod, TeamPeople)

Our DEI strategy is to increase the variety and contribution of experiences that will help us expand our impact in a thoughtful, socially conscious way. Our strategy includes:

(1) Providing opportunities for employment and advancement at Classroom, Inc. for individuals from communities who are historically disadvantaged and underrepresented in edtech. Our specific goal is to increase the percentage of staff and Executive Team members who identify as BIPOC. 

(2) Diversifying our Board of Directors. In the current year, we have added three leaders who bring expertise in marketing, growth, and financial strategy from organizations such as Samsung and Oracle NetSuite. All identify as women, two identify as Asian, and one identifies as White. We are specifically prioritizing including an educator and a Latinx voice.

(3) Continuing to create career worlds that feature Black and Latinx characters in leadership positions, and include storylines that more directly address workplace diversity and bias, as well as quests that promote inclusion through student exploration of their own identity to broaden their understanding of “other.” 

Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, a professor of children’s literature at Ohio State University, said that “all children need a mirror to see themselves, a window to see the world beyond their own, and a sliding glass door to encourage them out into that world.” These ideas are the central principle guiding our work, especially in a world where only 13% of children’s literature includes multicultural content.

Read to Lead is applying to Solve in order to maximize the impact of our unique and innovative learning model. 

We anticipate the nine months of personalized support from Solve staff and the cross-sector community network will help us accelerate our work and scale our solution. Specifically, we would value the Solve community’s partnership in addressing the potential barriers of market competition and financial sustainability, leveraging the expertise gained from working with other successful high growth organizations.

Business model: We are currently engaged in a 3-month consulting project with Deloitte focused on identifying the best options for our operating business model and the development of new revenue sources. We would value the Solve community’s expertise and mentorship in executing on those strategic options and making the most of those opportunities. 

Public Relations: Our efforts to expand our community of Read to Lead educators center on activating our most committed users as ambassadors, and we know that amplifying the stories and voices of these teachers represents a significant growth opportunity. We need support in effectively pitching their inspiring stories to the media and increasing awareness, as well as in establishing Read to Lead as a thought leader in our domains of expertise (literacy, SEL, and early career exploration).

Product/Service Distribution: In addition to direct access through our learning platform, we share Read to Lead with educators through partnerships with distribution platforms and school/CBO partnerships. We are seeking to identify additional partnership opportunities to increase the number of educators and students who can benefit from Read to Lead.

Technology: We have a clear roadmap of opportunities, and we want to add capacity to move from ideation to creation of Read to Lead learning experiences more quickly, gain a deeper understanding of teacher and student needs and program impact to inform an iterative design cycle.

Read to Lead is seeking to partner with organizations and people who can help us scale to reach and impact more educators and students, create innovative new learning experiences, invest financial resources in our solution, and more deeply understand how our program drives student learning outcomes. 

With those goals in mind, our ideal partners include:

-- Corporations who are interested in expanding what’s possible for young people, and who can provide insights into domain-specific product development (i.e., sharing what it’s like to work in a technology company), a platform for increasing awareness of Read to Lead, and financial resources. Examples from Solve network include: HP, Vodafone, General Motors, and Best Buy.

-- Distribution partners, similar to our current partners BrainPOP and PBS Learning Media, who can help us get Read to Lead in front of more educators and students.

-- Schools and community based organizations serving middle school youth in high need communities. 

-- Investors: Individuals and foundations who can support our work financially and through their expertise. Examples from the Solve network include the TGR Foundation and the Morgridge Family Foundation.

-- Research partners who can inform how we measure our impact on social-emotional learning skill development and early career exploration / occupational identity. Examples from the Solve network include ASA.

-- Media partners who can help raise our profile and provide opportunities to share our unique perspective.

Read to Lead is directly aligned to ASA’s focus on innovative solutions for U.S.-based students that provide early career exploration opportunities, and they recommended we apply for this Challenge.

Our model intentionally merges reading, writing and career skills through immersive workplace learning games that present authentic workplace scenarios where students must read closely, think critically and solve problems faced by their staff and their community.  

Our goal is twofold: introduce students to a variety of careers and skills across multiple pathways, helping them learn about new careers and professional roles, (example: medical professions) and ultimately to provide valuable experiences that will help them in the long term identify a career or field that interests them. 

In addition to career exploration, Read to Lead offers opportunities for teachers to engage youth, and to help them build reading, writing and professional communication skills. As important, Read to Lead scenarios and “after action review” lessons help students develop soft skills, including leadership, collaboration, problem solving and an overall improved engagement in school. 

By prioritizing academics AND career exploration early, we are ensuring youth have the skills to be successful in school today and to begin to envision their options and goals for a successful future/tomorrow.

If selected for this prize, we will identify schools and teachers who are interested in partnering with us to further investigate and understand our impact in the formation of occupational identity in middle school:  students’ ability to see themselves in diverse careers roles.

We are applying to this Prize to meet the demand that educators have shared for new Read to Lead learning experiences that support their middle school students in STEM career exploration and skill development. 

Meeting this demand is critical. Without engaging, openly accessible, standards-aligned learning resources, STEM fields will continue to miss out on the talent that is currently underrepresented in those careers - including people from low-income communities, people of color, and women.

The Department of Education confirms what educators have long known: by middle school, students tend to lose interest in the sciences. Yet, adolescence is the critical window for exposing youth to potential career pathways. Compounding the problem are pervasive stereotypes and instructional content that give marginalized youth, and especially girls, strong cues that STEM fields are not for people like them. Our solution, Read to Lead, is already transforming learning for thousands of middle school youth throughout the nation. 

This Prize will enable us to launch new virtual workplace experiences set in STEM careers, such as computer science, aerospace, software development, and chemical engineering. As a result, middle school students will gain immersive exposure to STEM careers plus vocabulary and immersive stories that bring those careers to life and provide an accurate picture of the job at hand and the science skills and the 21st century “soft skills” that are essential in these professions.

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