Literacy Organizations
Literacy is a National, state, and local priority. The links below contain contact information for a variety of local and National level organizations that focus on literacy.
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NC Literacy Association- Find a Program Page (Search for North Carolina Literacy Councils and Organizations)
National Literacy Directory- Find a Program Page (Search for National Literacy Organizations)
826 National is a nonprofit tutoring, writing, and publishing organization with locations in seven cities across the country. Our goal is to assist students ages six to eighteen with their writing skills, and to help teachers get their classes excited about writing. Our work is based on the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success. Writer Dave Eggers is the co-founder of 826 Valencia, the flagship center in San Francisco.
Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy
The Barbara Bush Foundation supports literacy efforts across the country where parents and children can learn to read together.
Using Book Adventure, young readers not only receive the intrinsic satisfaction of reading a book and demonstrating their comprehension through short quizzes, but also earn rewards for reading and demonstrating comprehension of the books they've read.
Bookshare, the world's largest accessible digital library for people with print and learning disabilities (such as dyslexia), provides free membership to qualified U.S. schools and students, thanks to an award from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education. Get access to more than 43,000 digital books, textbooks and teacher-recommended readings to help your child succeed and enjoy reading independently.
Brightly is a resource to help moms and dads raise lifelong readers. Launched in partnership with Penguin Random House, Brightly features book recommendations from all publishers for every age and stage, reading tips and insights, seasonal inspirations, author essays, contests, gift guides, and more.
Center for the Book (Library of Congress)
On behalf of books and reading, the Center for the Book serves as an advocate, a catalyst, and a source of ideas — both nationally and internationally. Its major themes and projects are reading and literacy promotion, the role of books and reading in today's society, the international role of books, the recognition and celebration of America's literary heritage, and the history of books and print culture.
The Children's Book Council is a non-profit trade organization dedicated to encouraging literacy and the use and enjoyment of children's books since 1945. The CBC sponsors Young People's Poetry Week and National Children's Book Week each year.
Children's Literacy Initiative
Children's Literacy Initiative (CLI) is a nonprofit that works with K-3 teachers to transform instruction so that children can become powerful readers, writers, and thinkers. CLI's goal is to close the gap in literacy achievement between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers. CLI provides training and coaching to teachers and administrators, and quality children's books to classrooms.
Colorín Colorado is a bilingual web site that provides information, activities, and advice on helping children learn to read and succeed at school. Developed by the Reading Rockets project, Colorín Colorado features practical information for Spanish-speaking parents, beautiful illustrations from Caldecott Award-winning illustrator David Diaz, video clips of celebrities such as the late beloved Celia Cruz, and skill-building activities that draw upon Spanish-language songs and rhymes.
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
To help foster a love of reading among children, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library provides age-appropriate books to young children by mailing each enrolled child a new book every month. The program allows any child access to books, regardless of income. More than 1600 local communities provide books to about 700,000 children every month through the program.
EDSITEment offers a treasure trove for teachers, students, and parents searching for high-quality material in the subject areas of literature and language arts, foreign languages, art and culture, and history and social studies.
Edutopia offers teaching and learning resources for teachers and students that inspire collaboration, critical thinking, and communication. Edutopia's mission is to transform the learning process by helping educators implement six core learning strategies, including project-based learning and technology integration.
Even Start works to help break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy by improving the educational opportunities of the Nation's low-income families by integrating early childhood education, adult literacy or adult basic education, and parenting education into a unified family literacy program.
The Family Reading Partnership is a community organization that promotes early literacy. They are a broad-based, locally grown coalition of individuals, businesses, schools, libraries and other organizations — to "create a culture of literacy" by promoting family reading practices.
First Book is a national nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and to own their first new books. The primary goal of First Book is to work with existing literacy programs to distribute new books to children who, for economic reasons, have little or no access to books.
FreeReading is a free, open-source reading program addressing literacy development for grades K-3. Leveraging the collective wisdom of researchers, teachers, reading coaches, and other education and industry professionals, FreeReading provides a high-quality, cost-effective framework for intervention programs supporting K-6 literacy. Schools and teachers can use the complete, 40-week, research-based intervention program for K-1 students, or use the library of lessons to supplement existing curriculum in phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing.
A web-based literacy program for boys founded by author and First National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature Jon Scieszka. Our mission is to help boys become self-motivated, lifelong readers.
In2Books, the largest nonprofit literacy program in Washington, DC, helps students become successful readers, writers, and thinkers through a combination of challenging work for students and literacy professional development for their teachers.
International Children's Digital Library
An online library whose goal is to collect and make available the best historical and contemporary children's books from around the world, in their original language.
We are a community of authors, illustrators, educators, and parents all working together to bring great books to kids. KidLit TV has partnered with We Need Diverse Books to encourage the children’s literature community to create more books that reflect the diversity of our society. Browse videos from diverse authors, illustrators, editors, publishers, and more; video tutorials on using new technology for creating and promoting books; and videos about contemporary and classic books.
Looking for more than just a movie? This fun website pairs a recommended kids movie with similar family adventures within your community. You'll find helpful information about the movie, conversation starters, and bits of wisdom about planning a successful family outing. The offer a free weekly newsletter than will keep you inspired.
Literate Nation is a nonprofit call to action movement begun by a group of citizens, educators, and scientists. The organization's vision is to create an accessible, highly informed, broad-based platform for literacy leadership that will provide the U.S. with the most comprehensive, cross-disciplinary resources and strategic initiatives available to propel the systemic changes needed for a fully literate nation.
National Center for Families Learning
The National Center for Families Learning (formerly the National Center for Family Literacy) inspires and engages families in the pursuit of education and learning together. Since 1989, the NCFL has helped families make educational progress by pioneering and improving family literacy programs. NCFL offers free resources for parents, educators, and community organizations.
National Center for Learning Disabilities
The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) works to ensure that the nation's 15 million children, adolescents, and adults with learning disabilities have every opportunity to succeed in school, work, and life. NCLD provides essential information to parents, professionals and individuals with learning disabilities, promotes research and programs to foster effective learning, and advocates for policies to protect and strengthen educational rights and opportunities.
National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance
Founded by award-winning authors and illustrators, the NCBLA creates and develops special projects and events that promote literacy, children's literature, and libraries.
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) at The Library of Congress
Find audio, braille, and print/braille books for preschool through grade 8 in the NLS catalog. Materials are circulated to eligible borrowers in the U.S. through a national network of cooperating libraries.
The NWP is a network of sites anchored at colleges and universities and serving teachers across disciplines and at all levels, early childhood through university. The NWP provides professional development, develops resources, generates research, and acts on knowledge to improve the teaching of writing and learning in schools and communities.
Nemours BrightStart! researches, develops and offers evidence-based tools targeting young children at risk for reading failure. Their goal is to effectively instruct children at the very beginning of their reading journey to ensure long-term reading success. In addition to direct services for young children in Florida and Delaware, Nemours BrightStart! helps parents, educators, health care professionals and community leaders understand key concepts and actions needed to promote reading success for all children through a variety of tools, services and resources.
The Parent-Child Home Program (formerly the Mother-Child Home Program) is a proven, innovative home-based literacy and parenting program serving families challenged by poverty, low-levels of education, language barriers and other obstacles to educational success.
Parent education and readiness program supporting parent education and developmental activities with infants and toddlers. Services include home visits, group meetings, developmental screening and referral to additional resources if needed.
Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening (PALS)
PALS is funded through Virginia Reads grants and the University of Virginia. The PALS website includes: 1) a section where teachers return their class scores to UVA and receive an immediate summary report, 2) a page where principals and district representatives can receive summaries of their schools' PALS scores, and 3) more than a hundred instructional suggestions and activities, based on PALS screening sections.
A program to help families build and sustain reading routines in their homes, with special attention to highest-risk for educational failure. The program helps families understand why sharing books regularly matters; excite children and families with award-winning books each week that build the book sharing routine; and establish connections to libraries to maintain literacy habits at home.
The Read to Me program offers a hands-on series of activities and supervised practice sessions that guide teen parents and other moms to read with their babies. The goals of te program are to: pffer reading as a resource to young moms for pleasure, parenting tips, and psychological insights; stimulate imaginations and initiate early literacy education; and improve the potential for healthy parent-child relationships.
Reading ASSIST® Institute (RAI), a nonprofit organization, helps children with reading disabilities unlock the written word by training tutors and teachers in a phonetic-based, multisensory structured language (MSL) reading curriculum inspired by the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction.
Provides detailed information about learning to read and strategies for supporting struggling readers at home, at school, and in the community. It offers news, practical information, expert advice, and resources for parents, teachers, tutors, child care providers, and policy makers.
Reading is Fundamental (RIF) provides a bilingual website that is designed to help Latino families read, sing, and share stories together at home.
The RTI Action Network is dedicated to the effective implementation of Response to Intervention (RTI) in school districts nationwide. The goal is to guide educators and families in the large-scale implementation of RTI so that each child has access to quality instruction and that struggling students — including those with learning disabilities — are identified early and receive the necessary supports to be successful.
Scholastic Parents provides information about child development, tips on how to support your child's academic and social growth in school, booklists, and themed activities for learning at home..
Scholastic Teacher offers free lesson plans, interactive activities, a bookfinder tool, book discussions, and many more resources for teachers.
The Starfall learn-to-read website is offered free as a public service. Primarily designed for first grade, the site is also useful for pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and second grade, and Home Schooling.
StoryPlace is an interactive site for children (with both an English and Spanish version), created to provide a virtual experience of going to the library and participating in the types of activities the library offers. StoryPlace currently consists of two libraries, the Preschool Library and Elementary Library, with new activities and themes added each month.
StudyDog is a complete Early Reading (pre-K thru 2nd grade) computer-based program aligned with the findings of the National Reading Panel. StudyDog Reading provides all of the components of a complete, evidence-based, comprehensive, and effective early-childhood reading program.
Teaching Cannel is a video showcase of inspiring and effective teaching practices in America's schools. Teaching Channel works to revolutionize how teachers learn, connect, and inspire each other to improve education.
Thirty Million Words Initiative
The initiative develops and disseminates evidence-based, parent-directed programs that encourage parents to harness the power of their words to build their children’s brains and shape their futures.
United Through Reading offers deployed parents the opportunity to video-record themselves reading storybooks to their children to help ease the difficulty of separation and cultivate a love of reading.
Research shows that there is no better time to create a strong foundation than the first five years of life, because this is when brain development is the most rapid. And, the things that matter the most, like talking and playing, can be layered onto existing routines. Vroom provides tools and materials that help turn everyday moments with your child into brain building moments!
The Walking Classroom program is an in-school obesity intervention that promotes health literacy and develops and supports lifelong fitness habits for all students while addressing different learning styles. The method combines standards-aligned academic content and exercise during the regular school day. Using WalkKits pre-loaded with a year's worth of standards-aligned audio content, students walk, listen and learn.
Wonderopolis nurtures wonder and learning through the power of discovery, creativity, and imagination. The Wonders of the Day help families and teachers find learning moments in everyday life.