Lit Hub History

In July of 2021, the percentage of students that could read at grade level post-pandemic decreased due to the COVID pandemic.  Valley of the Sun United Way came to us with an idea:  what if Avondale ESD along with other Read On Communities throughout the state worked together to create literacy hubs to match each district's context.  The underlying idea was that these hubs would provide a welcoming environment to invite families back to campus after COVID and leverage community partnerships and parent resources to make a difference in student literacy achievement.  The first grant application, Innovative Approaches to Literacy, was born. Although the Read On Community groups demographics data did not qualify us to be reviewed for this award, the vision remained - and we were not going to let it go!

Another funding opportunity presented itself and we again applied with other Read On Arizona Communities and the support of Valley of the Sun United Way.  This time we were successful, and our Literacy Hub was realized!

Implementation of the hub began during the 2022-2023 school year on the Lattie Coor campus.  This location was chosen because of the Community of Schools proximity and the Reading data that showed this area of the district stood to benefit the most from the hub.   Our vision was to create a welcoming literacy environment that could be used by all families district-wide to support student reading achievement and provide continuous development resources for parents, including GED books in English and Spanish, Rosetta Stone licenses and through other resources such as Cox campus.  Pairing parent training with literacy tutoring, collaborating with community partners such as Make Way for Books and Play and Learn, and hosting literacy nights for families, we are taking steps every day to bridge the gap and set our students up for literacy success - all hands on deck!