OUR WORK
LITERACY FOR ALL
At Literary Academy Collective (LAC) we believe access to literacy is the most pressing Civil Rights issue in New York City. Our goal is to break the cycle of illiteracy for students with dyslexia, LBLDs, and other struggling readers.
Our first school, South Bronx Literacy Academy (SBLA), opened in fall 2024 as the first district public school in the country specifically designed to support students with dyslexia. We are now preparing to open our second school, Central Brooklyn Literacy Academy (CBLA).
In addition to our schools, LAC runs a Summer Academy and in-school and after-school programs across multiple schools in District 1, serving the Lower East Side of New York City.
Lastly, LAC has been tapped to convene the NY State Path Forward cohort team, with the aim to transform early literacy instruction in New York State by embedding the science of reading into educator preparation.
Read more about our policy work here.
"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."
- Frederick Douglass
WHAT IS DYSLEXIA?
"Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge."
WHAT IS STRUCTURED LITERACY?
Structured literacy is an approach to teaching oral and written language. It's based on the science of how kids learn to read based on decades of research.
"The body of work referred to as “the science of reading” is not an ideology, a philosophy, a political agenda, a one-size-fits-all approach, a program of instruction, or a specific component of instruction. It is the emerging consensus from many related disciplines, based on literally thousands of studies, supported by hundreds of millions of research dollars, conducted across the world in many languages. These studies have revealed a great deal about how we learn to read, what goes wrong when students don’t learn, and what kind of instruction is most likely to work the best for the most students."
Dr. Louisa Moats
Only 7% of students
with disabilities
meet proficiency
Only 16%
of Black students and
19% of Hispanic students
meet proficiency
Only 32% of NY State
8th graders score
at or above proficiency
