Louisiana Reads!™

Girl Scouts Louisiana East Literacy Event
Learning begins at home.
Did You Know? 
According to 2022 NAEP scores, only 28% of Louisiana fourth graders and 27% of Louisiana eighth graders are reading on grade level.

Parents’ continuing support of literacy development can positively affect a child’s reading journey. 

Data from the National Household and Education Survey demonstrates that children from households with limited resources enter school at a disadvantage, making it extremely difficult to catch up to their more affluent peers.

Researchers have found two factors that contribute to this: 
1. Access to Books
2. Being Read to Aloud at Home

To address these factors, Louisiana Reads!™ empowers families with the knowledge, confidence, awareness, and literature to support their child’s learning experience at home.

Bridging the gap between classroom instruction and at-home learning.

Louisiana Reads!™ Mobile App

The app was designed with parents in mind so they feel confident being active in their child’s literacy journey.

To download visit LaReads.org

The Literacy Lightbulb

Louisiana Reads!™ texting service provides parents with literacy tips and activities that can be done at home.

To start receiving your monthly interactive literacy tip, text the word “LAREADS” to (833) 460-0546.

Reading Guides
Keep the conversation going after the story ends.
Inspired by The Louisiana Reads!™ Bookshelf: Summer Edition, these Louisiana Reads!™ reading guides are designed to help families read, talk, and learn together. Each guide includes simple ways to interact with books and support literacy at home for readers of all ages.
 
Available Guides:
Bring Louisiana Reads!™ to your school or district with our NEW program models.
Model 1 – Community Program Partner with Book Distribution
Model 2 – Growing Reading Brains: Parent Edition Workshop (virtual)
Model 3 –Growing Reading Brains: Parent Edition Workshop (on-site)
Some funding sources to consider are Title 1, homelessness funds, general operating funds, and grants that have a family engagement component.
The Family Literacy Engagement Framework is the result of the Family Literacy Engagement Pilot, a statewide, research-based initiative approved and funded by the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). Grounded in the Dual Capacity-Building Framework developed by Dr. Karen Mapp, this model was designed to help schools and families work together to create lasting change in literacy engagement and student success.

The framework provides schools and families with sustainable strategies, tools, and best practices that establish, strengthen, and maintain effective infrastructure supporting family engagement surrounding literacy both inside and outside the classroom.

Strong family-school partnerships are proven to improve student outcomes, increase engagement, and support long-term academic success. The Family Literacy Engagement Framework helps schools build sustainable systems that make family engagement a meaningful and ongoing part of literacy development — not just a one-time initiative. By strengthening communication, collaboration, and shared responsibility between schools and families, the framework supports a culture where literacy growth can thrive for generations of learners.


The goals of the Family Literacy Engagement Framework are to...
  • Increase families' capacity to support reading outside the classroom
  • Bridge the gap of information, expectations, and resources between the state and the classroom
  • Strengthen school infrastructure to support family engagement best practices 
  • Develop parent/family literacy education awareness
How Can Schools and Families Use It?
Schools can use the framework to develop effective literacy engagement strategies that strengthen relationships with families, support educators, and improve student achievement.
Families can use the framework to better understand and participate in their child’s literacy journey, creating meaningful reading experiences at home that build confidence, connection, and lifelong learning habits.
Ready to Partner? Email Us Today!

Parent Portal Playlist
Louisiana Reads!™ seeks to promote at-home reading opportunities through literacy awareness, book distribution, and direct-service to families. Together, we aim to tackle literacy challenges through quality content delivery to caretakers of children, promotion of active parent engagement, and building community partnerships. The ultimate goal is to merge classroom instruction and practice with at-home learning guidance through reading.

In this digital library, there are a number of short videos and printable pages to help increase parents’ knowledge and confidence in language-based learning for their children and utilize read-aloud strategies to foster those learning opportunities. These strategies include how to guide the child through reading, how to interact with the book, how to ask questions throughout the book that has the child critically thinking, things that foster creativity and connecting stories to real-life situations. Additionally, there are foundational reading skill learning supports.

Testimonials

“One of the things we love about Louisiana Reads is that they inspire us to continue reading, and they inspire us to allow the children to pick their own books so that they can learn, read, grow, and develop with the books. That way they can learn new things, experience new adventures, and get a better idea of the world around them. A book can take you many places. Our parents enjoy the Louisiana Reads app and the Literacy Lightbulb texts. They encourage us as well as our parents to not just read to our students but to interact with them while they read. To point out vocabulary in the story and expand on it, to explain the illustrations, cover all the questions, and make the sounds that they really love. Louisiana Reads is just a great program to be a part of and to be connected to. They have made such an impact at Radiance Child Development Center at all five of our locations in such a great way. We’re so grateful just to be connected with them. Thank you, Louisiana Reads. We appreciate you guys.”
- Brenda Looney, Radiance Child Development Center