A Miami Gardens literacy hub lifts kindergarten reading from 52% to 88%

When the Lucy Project opened a literacy hub at Norwood Elementary in the 2023-24 school year, 52 percent of kindergartners were reading proficiently. Two years later, 88 percent of kindergartners at the Title I school in Miami Gardens were on track, WLRN reported. The nonprofit is expanding this year to five more elementary schools, which brings the total to nine. A $500,000 donation through the Partnership for Miami pays for those new hubs.

The project was already working in Auburndale and Florida City elementary schools and at Beacon College Prep. The new schools, including Riverside Elementary, where 18 percent of third graders read at proficient or above last year, get small-group instruction, weekly progress checks, and training for teachers and administrators. Founder Sandra Bermudez told WLRN that children who are not taught to read can start to believe they are not smart, and that the problem is the teaching, not the child. A Spanish component was added last year.