For Immediate Release
December 8, 2022 -- Princeton, NJ – The American Consortium for Equity in Education (ACE-Ed) has awarded Learning Ally an Excellence in Equity Award for Best Early Childhood Education Solution for its PreK-2 literacy program, Excite Reading™.
ACE-Ed Excellence in Equity Awards recognize outstanding achievements of schools, educators, and industry who
support equitable opportunities and success
ful outcomes for educators and learners. Over 160 nominees entered their high-impact efforts and programs to enhance educational equity in PreK-12.
Learning Ally’s Excite Reading™ supports PreK-2 teachers in preparing emergent learners with essential language development skills for reading success. The program’s human-narrated e-library is filled with visually stunning, culturally responsive titles with themed text sets of authentic children’s literature. Captivating stories engage young readers in early decoding and language development skills, while expanding their curiosity and reading enjoyment. Themes include gardens, insects, communities, and the arts, and cross important domains to learn about science, art, and history. Carefully designed lessons build vocabulary and background knowledge, and make important social and emotional connections with prompts for valuable discussions. Corresponding teacher guides drive instruction to a higher level of discourse using relevant vocabulary to express questions, answers, and ideas to stimulate critical thinking. The early literacy program is available 24/7 for class instruction and for home use to enhance family literacy.
Ross Romano, Program Chair of the Excellence in Equity Awards and Strategic Advisor to the American Consortium for Equity in Education said, “Educators and industry are on the same team, dedicated to driving the mission to ensure more equitable opportunities for all learners across America.”
Learning Ally, a nonprofit, works with over 450,000 U.S. educators to improve reading outcomes for emerging and struggling readers in PreK-12. The nonprofit supports schools and families to resolve the nation’s literacy crisis, and education equity challenges with quality literacy instruction, professional learning, and literacy leadership, including these initiatives:
- early screening processes and early literacy solutions
- equitable access to text-sets, literature, popular fiction, and textbooks through ereaders and audiobooks
- remediation and support for struggling readers
- professional learning for educators on the science of reading, and literacy leadership
- family literacy, and thriving Educator and Parent communities
“We are thrilled to have Excite Reading™ honored with ACE-Ed’s 2022 Excellence in Equity Award,” said Heather Wiederstein, V.P. of Solutions Development for Learning Ally. “PreK-2 is a critical time for reading development. This early literacy program fulfills two important objectives for early reading success – exposure to text-based vocabulary, and critical background knowledge that will strengthen early comprehension skills.”
Learning Ally Solutions are grounded in the best practices of the science of reading, brain-based learning, and Whole Child Literacy™ that considers not only academic and cognitive variables crucial to learning, but also social, emotional, and environmental factors that impact learning.
Excite Reading™ also won a Tech & Learning “Back to School” Award of Excellence in Primary Education, and the Readers’ Choice Award in Early Literacy by SmartBrief on EdTech.
Learn more about the Excite Reading™ Grant Program for the 2023 school year. Applications are due by December 15, 2022.
About Learning Ally
Learning Ally is a leading education nonprofit dedicated to equipping educators with proven solutions that help new and struggling learners reach their potential. Our range of literacy-focused offerings for students in Pre-K to 12th grade and catalog of professional learning allows us to support more than two million students across the United States.