GADSDEN COUNTY, Ga. (WTXL) - A new project in Florida's Panhandle aims to boost children's literacy rates in school districts that struggle to make high scores.
Getting children interested in turning the pages. That's the goal of the Read With Me project which aims to improve literacy for students.
"Each student in our school will receive four books each. They'll have an opportunity to take them home and add them to their home libraries . Here parents will have an opportunity to get more involved with their child," said Principal Dr.Sonya Jackson.
Dr. Sonya Jackson says West Gadsden Middle school will host parents workshops to encourage them to read aloud with their children.
Through the project, children who don't typically have access to books will be able to start a library at home and read from the school's new collection.
And there's definitely a need to fill these bookshelves. Through the Read with Me program more than 400 books will soon sit here and that's just the start. New ones will continue coming in over the next three years.
The U.S. Department of Education awarded two million dollars to 11 Florida schools to boost early education over the next three years.
Read With Me will offer a summer coding program, give e-readers to the schools, and focus on improving practices for teachers.
The 11 chosen schools have historically low literacy rates and this new funding hopes to get children's reading scores on an upward trend.
"Reading is very important so in order to make sure that our students are getting the ready that they need, they have the books now to read at home and to continue to read while they're here at school," said Dr.Jackson.
West Gadsden Middle School is expecting hundreds of new books for their students to arrive within the next few weeks.
