Category "Arizona"

*Our 2019-2020 Annual Report is out! Give it a read by clicking here.   Read Better Be Better turned five this year. Now, I was not entirely sure which species would describe 5 as being of maturity, however, a quick Google search says it’s the echidna, which I would have bet was a type of […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 19, 2020   PHOENIX, AZ. – A Phoenix-based 501c3, Read Better Be Better (RBBB) was awarded grants from The Alison Lewis & Craig Krumwiede Family Foundation and The Burton Family Foundation through the Arizona COVID-19 Community Response Fund (ACF), as well as grants from the Microsoft DCCD COVID-19 Response Funds Phoenix […]

  The Arizona State Legislature and Governor Doug Ducey ended the 2019 Legislative Session with the finalization of the 2019-2020 state budget. After a large public turnout in favor of increased public education funding during 2018 and continuing into 2019, the Arizona Legislature allocated additional funding to some areas of public education while leaving other […]

When it comes to literacy and poverty, the facts are clear. A student who can’t read on grade level by 3rd grade is four times less likely to graduate high school than a child who does read proficiently by that time. Add poverty to the mix, and a student is 13 times less likely to […]

Humans go wild for ice cream. As a robot, that’s not something I can understand. What I can understand, however, is how special it is when a community comes together for a greater good. And that’s what happened recently when Read Better Be Better was nominated as a semi-finalist in the Blue Bunny Helmet of […]

April 26, 2018 is a historic day. In response to the first teacher walkout in Arizona history, more than 1,000 Arizona public schools (in nearly 110 school districts and charter schools) have closed. But the fight has just begun. As thousands of educators, parents, children, and supporters march to Arizona’s Capitol today, you’ll find our team among them. Read […]

Arizona has a critical teacher shortage: at the start of the 2017-18 school year, there were 1,968 vacant teaching positions, and 3,408 teaching positions are filled with people who don’t meet standard teaching requirements (Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association, December 2017). This problem disproportionately affects schools in under-resourced districts serving already marginalized communities – the […]

“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.” — James Cash Penney. This quote has always resonated with me, but I find it especially moving when I think about the progress we’ve made recently at Read Better Be Better. We. Got. An. Office.  And while I’ve been doing wheelies […]

When Principal Lori Goslar asked if Read Better Be Better would like to have a visit from Governor Ducey, I immediately said — AFFIRMATIVE. There’s nothing a robot likes more than a like-minded human, and Governor Ducey’s push to showcase successful educational interventions in Arizona right now is exciting. In fact, at the Read On […]

Did you know summer learning loss creates a 2.5 – 3 year learning gap between children of low and middle income families by the time they reach the fifth grade? (AZ Center for Afterschool Excellence Study) This summer, Read Better Be Better will again partner with Valley of the Sun United Way and The Boys […]