‘Literacy for the Lou’ a new chapter in education

• Alvin A. Reid | The St. Louis American
•  
• Feb 1, 2024

“Literacy for the Lou,” St. Louis Public Schools’ citywide, effort to increase and improve literacy among St. Louis’ children, turned its first pages with a pair of events last week.

During a Jan. 25, 2024, press conference at Mullanphy Elementary School, SLPS Superintendent Dr. Keisha Scarlett called ‘Literacy for the Lou’ “an all hands-on-deck mobilization of our entire city,” in a release.

“We plan to get children reading, family and friends coaching, and the entire community asking the question: "What book are you reading right now?"

Scarlett says on the SLPS website that students should get used to being asked what they are reading or writing.

“If they know the question is coming, they will want to have an answer,” she said.

According to SLPS, students and families will be assisted in building their own home libraries with several books being sent home to keep each school year for younger readers. Coaching will also be provided to families on how to teach through the ‘science of reading’ and help young readers learn and improve.

“We plan to get books – thousands of books – into students’ hands. If they have their own library at home with books they want to read, they will learn [to love it.]”

The St. Louis Public Library is a partner in the initiative, and a launch party at the Central Library downtown branch on Olive was held on Saturday, Jan. 27.

Guest authors included Super Bowl champion and children’s book author Malcom Mitchell, Soman Chainani, author of the book series that inspired the hit Netflix movie “The School for Good and Evil,” Tami Charles, author of the New York Times bestselling children’s book “All Because You Matter.; Trey Baker, spoken word poet and children’s book author who is also a special advisor to the Obama Foundation.

“These authors bring good stories to everybody,” Scarlett said.

Kelly Casper, Mullanphy principal, told St. Louis Public Radio, “There's nothing like those light bulb moments when you get to sit with a student and maybe it's beginning to teach them their alphabet and they learn letters.”

“They're like, ‘Wow, letters go together, they form words.’ Reading is a gift for students that can help transport them to the past and the future through books.

The city NAACP chapter has also recently launched a literacy initiative called “Right to Read.”

Its goal is for students to meet or exceed the overall state average by 2030. The campaign will be led by Ian Buchanan, the chapter’s new education chair.

“Many suggest that literacy is the civil rights issue of our era,” Ian Buchanan, city NAACP education chair, told the St. Louis American in December.

“If Black and brown students continue to underperform in literacy, we severely limit their life options even before they hit adolescence. This is a solvable problem.”

SLPS students have a reading proficiency score of 19% compared to a 45% statewide average, according to the National Center for Education Statistics annual report card.

The lagging literacy numbers are not limited to the city.

According to the NCES, only three in 10 Missouri students demonstrate reading proficiency at a fourth-grade level. Only one in 10 African American students reach the reading proficiency level.

George Sells, SLPS communications director, said reading “is not supposed to be a chore.”

"This is a really exciting time for the city and something that I think we'll look back on in 20 years and say this was a starting step to really grow reading, grow the schools and grow the city of St. Louis, because literacy and success of our population and success of our city are all tied together," he told KSDK.