Nashville, TN – The Tennessee Department of Education announced today the launch of ReadTennessee.org, a website that will help teachers, parents, and community members understand new curriculum standards and increased expectations for learning. The online toolkits provide information on promoting early grades reading and accelerating student achievement for young students across the state.
“Research has shown that if children do not read on grade level by third grade, they may never catch up with their peers,” Tennessee First Lady Crissy Haslam said. “ReadTennessee.org’s tool kits offer resources to parents, teachers and community members to help us improve early childhood literacy making our children competitive for college and prepared for a high quality workforce.”
Read Tennessee provides an easy to navigate resource for teachers, families and community members to utilize in the classroom and at home. Each section compiles information, activities, and tools to help inspire young children to engage and develop early grades reading and learning skills. These tools will help teachers create more challenging lessons, guide parents and guardians in better understanding what their child might be learning and doing at different stages of his/her development, and encourage community members to get informed and get involved in motivating our children towards successful futures.
“We must support collaboration and innovation as drivers of our effort to expand opportunities for students,” said Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman. “Our reading goals are very ambitious, and we have to continue to maintain focus on producing great student results.”
“We encourage you to explore our website and to take advantage of the information provided to help accelerate the learning of Tennessee’s children,” said Bobbi Lussier, Assistant Commissioner for School Readiness and Early Learning.
ReadTennessee.org is in partnership with the TDOE Division of School Readiness and Early Learning, Center for Literacy Studies at The University of Tennessee, Tennessee First to the Top, Tennessee Head Start, United Ways of Tennessee and the Office of the First Lady. Visit www.ReadTennessee.org to learn more.
For more information, contact Amanda E. Morris at 615.253.4754 or Amanda.E.Morris@tn.gov.
