Welcome readers!

At Springboard, we believe in the power of engagement. We believe in the power of family engagement, the foundation that all of our programs are built on. But we also believe in engaging in communities, from the children we serve to the families with whom we collaborate. We believe in closing the reading achievement gap.

This blog is a part of building engagement. So, welcome to our learning community.

This blog will be a space where we’ll share on the topics we know best: out-of-school time programming, family engagement, and literacy. From giving you an inside look at our programming across cities to useful reading tips for families, this blog will have it all! You’ll hear from the many voices of our partners, including Springboard school leaders and teachers as well as families and children. Hopefully, you’ll be sharing what you’ve learned with us, too. Combating the achievement gap is a collective effort.

So what have we learned about that you might see on this blog?

Stories from the field. These are the stories at the heart of Springboard. Here is where we’ll share stories from families and staff who are in the classroom daily. These stories will give you insight into all of our programs from a unique perspective – the perspective of the people who are part of the program. Springboard has standard programs, but we are constantly impressed by our staff, who run with what we give them and make our programming their own.

Ideas on raising and cultivating year-round readers. We know that reading proficiency in early grades is key to closing the achievement gap. We also know that both teachers and families have ideas for supporting and fostering a child’s love of reading that can close this gap. We want to share tips that we’ve learned from others and from you! This includes learning about different children’s books that could excite our young readers.

Tips for strengthening home/school partnership. We believe that parents are the best natural resource that a student can have, and that a parent and a teacher together can make an unstoppable student. We want to give tips to everyone – parents who want to be more involved, teachers who are trying to connect with families, and school leaders who want to build a culture of family engagement.

Strategies on using analytics to improve programming. We use data to evaluate our programs, to think about the future, and to inform our current work. We think that all data is important, not just what goes in our national impact report, and we want to share more of it with you.

And this is just the beginning. So what are you waiting for? Let’s learn from each other.

This post was written by Keo Chea-Young and Cathy White.

Dr. Keo Chea-Young is the Director of Staff Development at Springboard Collaborative. Born in a refugee camp in Thailand and raised as a Cambodian American in North Philadelphia, Dr. Chea-Young’s passion for language and literacy (reading and writing) development began at an early age. She grew up learning to write and read two languages simultaneously, developing native language and literacy at home. She has worked in the field of literacy in various capacities, including working with educators as a professional developer. At Springboard Collaborative, Dr. Chea-Young creates, supports, and manages curriculum and training materials and contents.

Cathy White is the Communications Coordinator at Springboard Collaborative. She works to tell the story of Springboard in various ways, including through social media, informational videos, infographic impact reports, and blogs. She has a background in history and communication studies, graduating from Drexel University in 2018.