Today is International Literacy Day! First, the good news: Philadelphia ranks higher than 84% of all school systems across the country in average learning rates, beating all 24 other big-city school systems it was evaluated against. However, just 33% of students in the city's school district are at or above grade level in reading, and over half of Philly adults under the age of 64 read at a fifth-grade level or below. While 3,000 people benefited from the city's adult education programs last year, more than 1,000 are still on waitlists. Here are some of the local organizations and programs working to promote literacy among children and adults.
State Sen. Vincent Hughes started Read to Succeed in 2012 as a resource for low-income families. R2S's focus was originally on children’s summer programming, but has since expanded to include additional offerings throughout the year, including a boys’ book club, an afterschool literacy program (now enrolling for this school year), and parenting workshops.
In 2021, two long-time literacy programs merged to create Beyond Literacy, which serves more than 2,000 adult learners each year. BeLit offers hybrid and in-person classes, as well as a mobile learning lab, and welcomes volunteers to step in as tutors, class aides, and more.
The Free Library's Culinary Literacy Center is taking English language instruction out of the classroom and into the kitchen! Designed for nonnative English speakers, Edible Alphabet gives adult students the opportunity to practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English while cooking a new recipe each week. You can sign up for an upcoming program here.
To disrupt Philly’s low-literacy cycle, Achieve Now works with schoolchildren to provide high-quality tutoring and a research-based curriculum. And it’s working: Students experience a 70% average gain in foundational reading skills. In addition to its volunteer coaches, the organization also relies on school, corporate, and community partners.
The foundational goal of Read by 4th is to ensure that every child in Philly can read at grade level by the time they enter fourth grade. This citywide coalition of family, community, and system leaders leads multiple initiatives, including Philly ABCs, the Reading Promise campaign, and the Neighborhood Literacy Fund. You can sign up for their monthly newsletter here.
This nonprofit focuses on empowering teachers by providing instructional materials, professional coaching, advocacy, and other resources to help them help children achieve reading proficiency at or above grade level. Children’s Literacy Initiative started in Philly in 1988, and now partners with 250 schools in six states.
This AmeriCorps program employs full-time tutors for kindergarten through third-grade students. Using a research-based, teacher-endorsed curriculum, each tutor works with the same 20 students at the same school for the full academic year. Close to 1,000 children are supported by this program each year.
More than 95% of Philadelphia public schools lack a functioning library. The West Philadelphia Alliance for Children is changing that, however, by reopening and operating public school libraries and providing thousands of books. In addition to volunteering with WePAC, you can also donate books!
