For Immediate Release

Contact: Jonathan Shaw

jshaw@rlisd.org

Rosebud-Lott ISD Launches Courageous Cougars Reading Challenge on Footsteps2Brilliance

Lott Texas, September 10, 2021 - Before kick-off at the Rosebud-Lott vs. Thorndale football game on Friday, September 24^th @ 6:45 PM CT, Superintendent Jim Rosebrock and Principal Jonathan Shaw, will launch a citywide literacy initiative in partnership with Footsteps2Brilliance to prepare students for kindergarten and ensure every child is reading on grade-level. As part of the Courageous Cougars Reading initiative, Rosebrock and Shaw will announce a 500,000 Word Reading Challenge on Footsteps2Brilliance. The top 3 readers in the Footsteps2Brilliance program will receive an Amazon Kindle. Additional prizes will also be awarded. The challenge will run from September 23 until January 5.

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Ilene Rosenthal, CEO
202-338-1223
Ilene@footsteps2brilliance.com

Washington D.C. – Today, Footsteps2Brilliance, a transformative pre-K through 3rd grade literacy solution that utilizes mobile technology to connect school, home, and the community was honored by the San Bernardino County (SBC) Preschool Services Department (PSD).

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Ilene Rosenthal, CEO
202-338-1223
Ilene@footsteps2brilliance.com

Washington D.C. – The Footsteps2Brilliance and Clever Kids University programs (Footsteps2Brilliance) have been approved by the Florida Department of Education as a provider of early learning solutions. Footsteps2Brilliance offers a powerful bilingual English and Spanish preschool curriculum designed to improve classroom instruction, engage parents, and prepare early learners for kindergarten.  Data shows that students who use Footsteps2Brilliance just 15 minutes a day meet or exceed Florida benchmarks.

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Ilene Rosenthal, CEO
202-338-1223
Ilene@footsteps2brilliance.com

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2021 – In a highly competitive pool of 4,000 global submissions, only one digital education solution was recognized by the World Bank and the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania. The jointly developed global competition, Ideas for Action (I4A), provides a one-of-a-kind platform for solving the world’s most pressing development challenges. The education award went to ELAN, a project of Teach the World Foundation.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 28 – Covington, KY.

Mayor Joe Meyer of Covington, Kentucky and his team have implemented an innovative approach to Early Literacy. Read Ready Covington is a city-wide coalition that engages all sectors of the community in maximizing early literacy efforts. Their coalition recognizes Footsteps2Brilliance as a vital component in its collective impact approach, especially during this past year as part of Covid-19 virtual learning. Read Ready Covington’s goals include increasing the percentage of children who enter kindergarten ready to learn and read proficiently by third grade. These goals align perfectly with Footsteps2Brilliance resources and are boosted by another City of Covington initiative called Covington Connect, a citywide free WIFI network to address the digital divide.

Washington, D.C. - On Tuesday, Feb. 9th at 3:30 EST, The Campaign for Grade Level Reading will showcase Dr. Barbara Nemko, Napa County Superintendent of Schools and Footsteps2Brilliance, to discuss how Napa County and other organizations throughout the nation have used technology to prepare children for kindergarten and stem learning loss caused by the pandemic.

Hawthorne School District is pleased to announce that it has received a grant from GRoW @ Annenberg in the amount of $100,000 for the innovative work that Superintendent Dr. Helen Morgan is doing to support citywide literacy. This grant will be used to extend the successful literacy partnership the district developed with Footsteps2Brilliance®.  It provides access to Footstep2Brilliance’s proven bilingual pre-K to 3rd grade literacy solution to every family in the city of Hawthorne.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Footsteps2Brilliance CEO, Ilene Rosenthal, has joined the ALAS Advisory Council based in Washington, DC.  ALAS, the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents, is committed to serving the educational needs of all students with an emphasis on Latin/o/a/x youth by building capacity, promoting best practices, and transforming educational institutions.

What should literacy instruction look like in a preschool classroom? As high-stakes testing puts more pressure on teachers and students, the spotlight is shifting to evaluate how we are preparing students in the years before kindergarten. Expectations for our early learners are going up. Many districts are struggling with how to help more children enter kindergarten ready and on a path to academic success. While it may be tempting to transform preschool classrooms to look more like kindergarten, the research shows that there are two literacy strategies that are proven to be developmentally appropriate and massively impactful for future reading success.

This graphic from the U.S. Department of Education illustrates these two practices in action. Based on the findings of What Works Clearinghouse, phonological awareness training and interactive and dialogic reading are effective strategies to put preschoolers on the path to reading success. 

The language gap between rich and poor children begins at birth.  In fact, Stanford University research found that 2-year-old children of lower income families may already be 6 months behind in language development.  Early learning gives the strongest return on investment, providing a clear path to a college education and career success.

Footsteps2Brilliance is excited to announce our partnership with College Bound from Birth. Designed and delivered by the early childhood education experts at Collaborative for Children, College Bound from Birth is a three-year quality improvement program offered at no cost in selected neighborhoods throughout Texas.  Program components aim to improve the quality of early learning, leading to kindergarten readiness.  Nobel Prize winning economist, James Heckman, whose research has proven the economic benefits of quality early learning, serves on the Collaborative for Children’s Advisory Board.