We very often fail to think as carefully about helping others as we could, mistakenly
believing that applying data and rationality to a charitable endeavor
robs the act of virtue.
-William MacAskill, Doing Good Better
We very often fail to think as carefully about helping others as we could, mistakenly
believing that applying data and rationality to a charitable endeavor
robs the act of virtue.
-William MacAskill, Doing Good Better
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3rd grade is when students go from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’ |
In 2021, 20% of Clarke County 3rd graders were reading at grade level |
A non-proficient reader in 3rd grade is 4x less likely to graduate high school |
The average high school dropout has a negative net fiscal contribution to society |
Since its inception, the mission of this regionally- and nationally-recognized program has been to channel the generosity of many toward the greatest local needs. In 2021, we approached our Advisory Council—a consortium of local social services professionals—to help us identify a single area of focus to which we would direct our resources and energy over the next 5-10 years, with the aim of achieving a measurable impact.
Through the guidance of this group, we selected early literacy as the first multi-year impact area, targeting 3rd-grade reading proficiency as our metric of success. Today we’re partnering with Books For Keeps on the Get Comfortable: Storytellers program.
Literacy is more than just an educational issue. The studies—cited above—show that the prevalence of early literacy has either positive or negative long-term effects: contributing to increased employment and economic development on the one hand, or predictive of poverty and incarceration rates on the other.
Therefore, Get Comfortable is committed to increasing the percentage of Clarke County 3rd-grade students reading at grade level from 20% to 60%.
In pursuit of raising our county’s 3rd grade reading proficiency, we’re conducting a pilot program at H.B. Stroud Elementary, with the aim of achieving a proof of concept that we plan to subsequently roll out district-wide.
Through our partnership with the Clarke County School District, Creature employees and community volunteers are recruited, trained, and paired with district-identified 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-graders for the duration of the school year. As a result, each participating student is exposed to an additional hour of literacy instruction every week.
