Literacy Now

In this insightful episode of Literacy Now Together, hosts Brett Tingley of Parents for Reading Justice and Kareem Weaver of FULCRUM welcome education journalist and author Karin Chenoweth for a wide-ranging conversation about what truly drives school improvement. Drawing on nearly two decades of studying high-performing schools serving students from low-income backgrounds and communities of color...

In this compelling episode of  Literacy Now Together , Brett Tingley of Parents for Reading Justice and Kareem Weaver of FULCRUM interview ClariceJackson, a nationally recognized literacy advocate and founder of The Voice Advocacy Center and Black Literacy Matters. Clarice recounts how her journey began with her daughter’s struggle to learn to read, leading her to challenge ineffective systems, ma...

In this episode of  Literacy Now Together , hosts Brett Tingley of Parents for Reading Justice and Kareem Weaver of FULCRUM talk with Dr. Louise Bay Waters, retired superintendent in Oakland, California, and Dr. Kelly Carvajal Hageman, Chief Academic Officer in Milford, Delaware, about what it takes to move district reading outcomes at scale. Drawing on leadership experience in both a large urban...

In this powerful episode of Literacy Now Together, Brett Tingley of Parents for Reading Justice and Kareem Weaver of FULCRUM sit down with Winifred Winston and LeDerick Horne, co-hosts of the Black and Dyslexic podcast, for an unflinching conversation about dyslexia, race, power, and advocacy. Winston and Horne share how the Black and Dyslexic podcast emerged from lived experiences and a lack of r...

In this timely and hard-hitting episode of Literacy Now Together, hosts Brett Tingley of Parents for Reading Justice and Kareem Weaver of FULCRUM are joined by parent advocates Lindsay Nofelt and Niki Sidler Richardson for a powerful coast-to-coast conversation on dyslexia, accountability, and the growing role of the courts in enforcing every student's right to learn to read. Drawing from landmark...

In this powerful episode of Literacy Now Together, hosts Brett Tingley (Parents for Reading Justice) and Kareem Weaver (FULCRUM) sit down with Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan and Dr. Antonio Fierro for an illuminating conversation on the science of reading and its vital application to multilingual learners. Drawing on decades of research and classroom practice, Dr. Cárdenas-Hagan and Dr. Fierro unpack how...

This Dyslexia Awareness Month, we bring you a powerful conversation with two nationally recognized literacy advocates: Ameer Baraka has been a leading voice in national criminal justice reform; similarly, former Detroit Lion Deon Butler became a champion for Michigan’s literacy legislation. Both men were failed by schools that never taught them to read. In adulthood, they reclaimed their stories —...

Parents for Reading Justice has teamed up with FULCRUM’s Kareem Weaver to bring you “Literacy Now, Together,” a podcast mini-series that takes a closer look at the reading crisis and explores real solutions with literacy leaders and families across the country. In this enlightening episode, Kareem Weaver (FULCRUM) and Brett Tingley (Parents for Reading Justice) talk with three leaders from the Mis...

In this moving episode of “Literacy Now, Together,” co-hosts Kareem Weaver of FULCRUM and Brett Tingley of Parents for Reading Justice sit down with Oliver James, a man who taught himself to read at 32 following a lifetime of hiding his illiteracy. During the COVID lockdown, Oliver set himself a personal challenge: learn to read. What began as a private goal became a transformative journey he now...

Why Basic Needs, like Literacy, Must Come Before Resilience Training — and What Schools Get Wrong Psychologist, educator, and Raising Moxie® founder Dr. Karin Hodges joins FULCRUM’s Kareem Weaver and Parents for Reading Justice’s Brett Tingley in a thought-provoking episode, uncovering how failure to meet children's literacy needs is driving stress and anxiety. Dr. Hodges warns that as schools inc...

We are so excited to bring you this powerful episode with Sonya Thomas, the passionate founder and Executive Director of Nashville P.R.O.P.E.L. Sonya shares her deeply personal journey into advocacy, beginning as a mother of four who was determined to secure a better future for her children. When she saw that her younger son was struggling to learn to read in his earliest years of school, advocati...

We are thrilled to bring you this interview with Dr. Heather Peske. Heather is the President of the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) and a former elementary school teacher. She shares how her early experiences teaching reading, combined with her experience as a parent of a struggling reader, fuel her commitment to improve teacher preparation nationwide. In addition, her work as a state p...

We are thrilled to bring you this conversation with Missy Purcell, a former teacher and Mom of a son with dyslexia. Missy is also the co-Founder of the Facebook page, The Science of Reading for Advocates and Gwinnette County Advocates for Dyslexia. Missy's initial professional training and practice was steeped in a 'balanced literacy' approach, and in particular, the Reading and Writin...

We are excited to bring you a new mini-series called "Literacy Now, Together." We've teamed up with FULCRUM’s Kareem Weaver to interview parents, literacy experts, and thought leaders to examine the literacy crisis and highlight the steps people are taking to improve literacy rates across the county. In this episode, we meet Jackie and Lawrence from Niagara Falls, New York, who have...

For our 18th episode, and 2nd international episode!, we are excited to bring you Kim Lockhart. Kim is a French bilingual immersion teacher and special education teacher in Canada. Despite attending a top-tier undergraduate teaching program and earning a master's degree, Kim didn't learn anything about how to teach children to read. That didn't come until she went through an Orton-Gill...

Summary: In this episode of Literacy Now, we talk with Rebecca Tolson.  Rebecca is the Director of the Center for Structured Literacy at the University of Akron.  Previously, she was the Vice President of Literacy Initiatives at Neuhaus Education Center and an adjunct professor in the master's of dyslexia therapy program at Walsh University.  Rebecca started her career as a 5th grade general educa...

'A worried mother does better research than the FBI!' We are so excited to bring you this inspiring conversation with Robin Zikmund! Robin is the founder of Decoding Dyslexia Idaho, a dyslexia advocate for the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education, and the parent of a child with dyslexia. Robin shares with us the history of missed opportunities and delays by many experts including the educational...

In this episode of Literacy Now, we talk with Todd Collins, a school board member in Palo Alto, California and founder of the California Reading Coalition. Todd is a self-described "accidental education advocate". Upon joining his school board, Todd assumed that the district knew how to teach reading pretty well. Overall state test scores were high. But he started to wonder if this was due to inst...

Summary We are so excited to welcome Dr. Tracy White Weeden to our podcast!  Tracy is the President and CEO of Neuhaus Education Center, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote reading success by providing evidence-based professional development to educators, information and resources to families, and direct services to adult learners. Tracy begins with her family history and...

Summary We are so excited to welcome Dr. Tracy White Weeden to our podcast!  Tracy is the President and CEO of Neuhaus Education Center, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote reading success by providing evidence-based professional development to educators, information and resources to families, and direct services to adult learners. Tracy begins with her family history and...

Summary ​We are excited to bring you this fascinating conversation with Kait Feriante. Kait is the co-founder of Redwood Schools (Chicago), which include two full-day K-8 schools for students with dyslexia, and a program for young adults who are court-involved who struggle with reading and writing.  Kait is also a former Chicago Public Schools teacher and parent of a child with dyslexia.  Kait sha...

Summary In this episode of Literacy Now, we meet an amazing parent advocate, Jenine Hanson. Jenine is from Naperville, Illinois, a city which is consistently listed in the top 10 U.S. cities in which to raise a family, particularly because of its excellent schools.  So when her oldest child was having difficulty with learning to read as early as 1st grade, Jenine started asking a lot of questions....

"You just gave me the code to the English language. I can read!" We are thrilled to bring you this inspiring conversation with David Chalk.  David is a Canadian technology entrepreneur, cybersecurity specialist, and a media personality. Until very recently, he couldn't read.  David has learning disabilities including acute dyslexia.  He shares the physical, mental and emotional toll it has taken o...

We are so excited to welcome Donna Hejtmanek to our podcast!  Donna is the founder of the Facebook page, Science of Reading- What I Should Have Learned in College. She is also a retired special education teacher and reading specialist. In our conversation, Donna talks about what led her to form the Facebook group, how it supports teachers and parents, and how it developed into the incredible resou...

SUMMARY: "Parents are the Key!" In this episode, we are thrilled to introduce you to Nora Chabazi. Nora is the founder of EBLI (Evidence Based Literacy Instruction), whose mission is to teach the world to read. Having left her career as a neonatal intensive care nurse to raise her three children, Nora soon found that she needed to quickly learn about reading instruction. Her daughter, wh...