October 10, 2019

To break the cycle of poverty in Arizona, the National Center for Families Learning in collaboration with Read On Arizona, Arizona Department of Education, Southwest Human Development, Make Way for …

Opinion: It’s important to tell families why their kids should be in school. It’s another to get them there. Missing just two days a month from school, or at least …

September 9, 2019

The increased emphasis on chronic absenteeism at the federal and state levels has put a premium on effective strategies for getting students to attend school. Continue reading →

July 3, 2019

This year, 32 communities are Pacesetters for their work during 2018 to support early school success. Continue reading →

March 29, 2019

A new grant program aims to close the “achievement gap” for low-income Arizona students by getting their families involved in their education.
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March 27, 2019

A study of literacy programs for Arizona third-graders found that children who live in poverty or attend rural schools are at a disadvantage in learning to read. Continue reading →

March 8, 2019

Education experts say when preschoolers can’t read at an age-appropriate level, it can hamper their long-term success in the classroom. The program “Read On Arizona” aims to make sure every child in Arizona schools reads at the proper level by the time they finish third grade. Continue reading →

February 26, 2019

Child-development experts say allowing your toddler or preschooler too much time in front of the TV or digital devices can delay their development of critical life skills. Continue reading →

December 19, 2018

Drive until the yellow line on the paved road disappears.

Keep driving as the cement gives way to a dirt path. Pass the dumpster. Continue reading →

November 6, 2018

For an elementary school teacher who works with economically disadvantaged students, it can be discouraging to hear phrases like “significant achievement gap” or “30-million-word gap” in discussions of the reading and vocabulary development of our students. But research does bear those phrases out: There are clear trends of underachievement in academics for students of low socioeconomic status (SES). Continue reading →

October 15, 2018

PHOENIX – To improve education and literacy in Arizona, it’s important to first understand challenges different communities face. Continue reading →

September 8, 2018

Unveiling a renewed focus on “uniting for an educated and thriving community” and shining a spotlight on its early children literacy efforts, United Way of Northern Arizona (UWNA) kicked off …

July 16, 2018

For many children, summer break is long enough that they’ll start to forget what they learned during the school year, educators say.
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July 6, 2018

Learn more about Arizona State Literacy Director, Terri Clark, in this Frontdoors interview. Continue reading →

June 23, 2018

Children have more free time in the summer to have fun. From enjoying summer camps to video games and TV, there are endless possibilities of entertainment. But beware of summer brain drain. Continue reading →

April 5, 2018

Seventy. That’s the percentage of fourth graders in Arizona who don’t read proficiently.

If that isn’t alarming enough, a whopping 56 percent of third-graders failed the reading portion of the AzMERIT test in 2017, meaning they scored neither proficient nor highly proficient. Continue reading →

March 14, 2018

Talk is cheap – and priceless.

Just ask Denise Murphy, a veteran Taylor Hicks Elementary School teacher in Prescott who is in her third year as director of the Arizona Reads Now early childhood literacy project. Continue reading →

March 1, 2018

A new video designed to show parents easy tips for reading with their babies is now available from First Things First. The two-minute video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/28uZFnX6uls. Continue reading →

January 28, 2018

Low-income children who receive educational support in school and at home from preschool through third grade may be more likely to get a college degree than their peers who don’t get extra help during their early years, a U.S. study suggests. Continue reading →

January 10, 2018

We went looking for big ideas in K-12 schooling: trends, disruptions, practices, or technologies that could help solve some of the field’s biggest challenges. Continue reading →

December 5, 2017

Children growing up in poverty face many challenges, but a preschool program that aims to improve social and emotional skills may help increase their focus and improve learning in the classroom, according to researchers. Continue reading →

November 28, 2017

Dyslexia is a learning difficulty which affects the ability to adopt the automatic reflexes needed to read and write. Several studies have sought to identify the source of the problems encountered by individuals with dyslexia when they read. Little attention, however, has been paid to the mechanisms involved in writing. Researchers have recently looked at the purely motor aspects of writing in children diagnosed with dyslexia. Their results show that orthographic processing in children with dyslexia is so laborious that it can modify or impair writing skills, despite the absence of dysgraphia in these children. Continue reading →

November 3, 2017

Our city has been synonymous with excellent schools, attracting parents from near and far to start their families in Mesa. In fact, Money.com named us the best big city in the Southwest in part because of our roster of stellar schools. Continue reading →

October 30, 2017

Reading at grade level by third grade is a critical milestone — one that can help predict whether or not kids will thrive in later grades and graduate from high school. That’s why Read On Arizona — a statewide public-private partnership devoted to improving early language and literacy outcomes — tapped the Annie E. Casey Foundation to advance its work helping young Arizonans reach this important target. Continue reading →

September 25, 2017

School is back in full swing in Arizona, and there’s work underway to ensure children are not missing out on the opportunity to learn. Continue reading →

September 12, 2017

Please be aware that the Arizona Department of Education does not issue AIMS nor AzMERIT results. Please contact the school or LEA where the student tested for this information. AzMERIT …

September 6, 2017

The Arizona Department of Education released official 2016-17 AzMERIT results Wednesday afternoon, but the public will have to wait until Oct. 9 to see how the scores will impact new A-F school letter grades. Continue reading →

August 29, 2017

MEDIA ADVISORY State of Arizona and City of Phoenix Receive National Awards at Read On Arizona Literacy Summit August 29 Governor Ducey, Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas, Phoenix Mayor …

July 5, 2017

Click to see Spanish version PHOENIX – Only about one in four Arizona children younger than age 6 gets regular vision screenings, according to the Children’s National Health Survey, but …

May 24, 2017

Just because babies can’t talk, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk to them. That’s just one tip in a new language and literacy awareness campaign. Continue reading →