By the time students reach fourth grade, they should be reading to learn, not learning to read. However, this is not always the case. In Illinois, 63% of fourth-grade students read below grade average. That statistic, in turn, adds to the nearly 500,000 students who drop out of high school each year.
During the summer of 2021, Parkland College students Madi Houser and Halee Fyke, and 2020 Parkland graduate Emma Larson, saw first-hand how poor literacy rates affect the students in our local community. They worked closely alongside one third grade student who was unable to read. The experience working with this student led them to the realization that most children have an unseen deep hunger to learn how to read and write. However, a lack of access to certain resources and many roadblocks may stand in the way of kids reaching their goals.
After a few months of research, it was found that in America, 61% of families do not have any books at all in their homes for their children. In Illinois middle-income neighborhoods, the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1. In low-income neighborhoods, the ratio is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children. As future educators and lovers of all things bookish, Houser, Fyke and Larson felt a pull to make a change and find a way to increase literacy rates in their community which in turn, increases literacy rates in the state of Illinois.
The three elementary education majors created a central Illinois literacy project called ‘The Lit Ladder.’ The Lit Ladder believes that every child deserves easy, equal access to age-appropriate books. With studies that consistently show that an increase in access to books leads to a desire to read, which leads to improved achievement in literacy rates, The Lit Ladder’s goal is to give kids access to books, not only to read but to own. It is one hundred percent through book donations, monetary donations, and support that The Lit Ladder sends books and other supplies to at-risk kids and teens, and sometimes adults. The Lit Ladder aims to help improve literacy rates in Illinois and instill a love of reading in our communities of need.
Since the project’s launch at the end of November in 2021, The Lit Ladder has collected over one hundred books and raised more than $100. In just under 2 weeks, there is enough books to donate twenty bags, containing 5 books each, to local families and kids who need them the most. The community can look forward to many book drives as the project grows, as well as community book nooks to foster an environment of safety and peace in communities that are more at-risk than others.
To learn more about The Lit Ladder or donate books or money, visit The Lit Ladder website, follow @thelitladder on Instagram and Facebook, or contact the project founders at thelitladder@gmail.com.
