The Lucy Project "is a year-round collaborative effort designed to strengthen reading instruction across entire grade levels," according to the organization's website.
When the first literacy hub opened in Norwood Elementary in the 2023-24 school year, only 52% of kindergarteners were reading proficiently. Two years later, 88% of kindergarteners in the Title 1 school in Miami Gardens are on track as proficient readers.
The Lucy Project, the group of specialized educators behind the impressive improved reading scores at Norwood, is being expanded this year to five more elementary schools, bringing the total to nine schools.
" A child who doesn't learn how to read is going to be unhappy," Lucy Project founder and chief executive officer Sandra Bermudez told WLRN.
They compare themselves to their peers, she said, and sense there's something different about them, which "often comes out in discipline issues [and] behaviors, because they start internalizing that they're not smart."