Tools Educators Can Use
Education research often never makes it into the hands of educators – meaning current, evidence-based strategies aren’t reaching the people who can put them to use or the kids who could benefit from them. The First Book Accelerator collaborates with experts to turn research and best practices into tools in a matter of weeks, bringing the most up-to-date information and resources to our network of more than 550,000 educators and the millions of children they serve.
First Book Accelerator resources are created and refined based on a constant cycle of educator feedback. To date, resources include research-based tools on childhood trauma, essential life skills, cultural diversity, social and emotional learning, family engagement, and other topics, translated into more than 150 toolkits, trainings, webinars, and reading and activity guides.
Per the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), some 34 percent of students are below basic reading level in the fourth grade. If a lack of diverse and plentiful reading materials in US classrooms has a direct correlation to low literacy levels, how do educators know if their classroom libraries are robust enough to further their students’ academic success? Until now, educators have lacked a tool to guide and assess the quality of their classroom libraries.
First Book partnered with literacy researcher Susan Neuman and incorporated feedback directly from our members to create a resource to help educators create robust and equitable classroom libraries. This resource is meant to guide the development and evaluation of classroom libraries, by identifying strengths and areas for improvement.