50,000 Minutes for Literacy Success
This school year, Grace Place for Children and Families is rallying behind an ambitious literacy goal: 50,000 minutes of staff-wide support dedicated to improving students’ literacy skills. Through this unprecedented commitment, we aim to make measurable gains in literacy benchmarks for our students, from preschool to high school. At Grace Place, we know that Education Changes Everything, and this year, every team member is pitching in to make a lasting impact.
To achieve this, every staff member—whether a bus driver, front desk receptionist, program director, or chief financial officer—will be dedicating time each week to work directly with students, assisting them in reading, letter recognition, and other foundational literacy skills. This organization-wide commitment underscores our belief that everyone at Grace Place plays an essential role in our students’ academic journeys.
Through these 50,000 minutes, we have two primary goals:
- For our youngest learners, ages 3 and 4, we’re focused on helping them meet age-appropriate literacy benchmarks in upper- and lower-case letter recognition. By investing time and attention, we aim to boost the percentage of students meeting these benchmarks by 25% as measured by the Alphabet Letter Recognition Inventory (ALRI) by the year’s end.
- For students in grades K-10, we aim to increase the percentage meeting grade-level literacy benchmarks by 15%, as measured by the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST). This goal will help ensure that students progress toward grade-level reading, a critical component of academic success and lifelong learning.
Grace Place’s literacy initiative is built on a whole-community approach, one that engages every staff member in a mission-driven effort to provide hands-on support. We believe this collective effort will not only improve literacy skills but also reinforce the relationships that form the backbone of our organization’s supportive environment.
We’ll keep you updated throughout the year on our journey toward the 50,000-minute goal and look forward to celebrating the positive impact it has on our students. Together, we’re building a foundation for lifelong success, demonstrating that with teamwork and commitment, our students can reach their full potential.
