In this Campaign for Grade Level Reading Learning Tuesday webinar, Belk Foundation Executive Director Johanna Anderson and Barksdale Reading Institute CEO Kelly Butler discuss The Path Forward initiative to improve teacher training on reading instruction.

“Students in high-poverty schools are about half as likely to have access to highly effective teachers, compared to students in low-poverty schools,” said Johanna Anderson, executive director of The Belk Foundation, at a recent convening of their board of directors and education stakeholders.

As we begin a new year, I wanted to share that our Executive Director at The Belk Foundation, Johanna Anderson, has let me know that she will be stepping down at the end of spring.

NCDPI Partners with NCPAPA, Belk Foundation to Launch Assistant Principal Accelerator Program

This fall, elementary school teachers and school leaders in one third of North Carolina school districts will begin LETRS training, with an ambitious goal of training all elementary school educators in the science of reading.

As we begin a new school year, in some ways, I’d like to block much of the pain and uncertainty that we experienced in our public schools last academic year. Amid the tremendous disruption, our grantee partners seized opportunities to accelerate their mission to support students and teachers.

North Carolina, we need a common understanding of what the “science of reading” really means. In the past week, much has been written and said in reaction to the reference to science of reading in the Excellent Public Schools Act of 2021.

The data is clear about the importance of children being able to read on grade level by third grade as a foundation of their education and future success. Today, we will delve into some shifts in how we think about early literacy and the direction the state and other partners are heading in regard to reading.

Teachers are the most important school-based resource for student learning. Highly effective teachers are an investment in our future — a sure way to promote students’ academic and social-emotional development.

For years, Leah Rausch thought about becoming a teacher. As a child, she recalls, she would line her stuffed animals up in her bedroom, forming a makeshift classroom with her toy students.