I started my career as a fifth grade teacher in the Bronx. Several of my students didn’t know how to read. I tried everything for two years. It wasn’t until my third year, as a first grade teacher in Harlem, that I finally learned how to teach reading, because that school happened to use an evidence-based curriculum. I was thrilled, and I was furious. I had lost two years with kids who deserved better. Learning to read is a science, but it isn’t rocket science, and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since. Years later, while leading a curriculum nonprofit, I volunteered in an Oakland first grade classroom where only 2% of students were reading proficiently. Their teacher, Sabrina Causey, and I started teaching her kids with a structured, evidence-based approach, and they took off. Then the pandemic hit. When school restarted on Zoom, we kept going, and within a month the data showed her students were learning to read. Virtually. That’s when I saw the model: a corps of highly trained reading tutors meeting with children one-to-one, every day, during the school day. What makes Ignite Reading different is when and how we teach. We believe every child should be reading by the end of first grade, and we call that our First Grade Promise. We don’t treat tutoring as homework help. Our tutors complete more than 100 hours of training before they ever work with a child, and they teach 15 minutes a day inside the literacy block using a research-backed curriculum. We hold ourselves accountable for outcomes. In a Johns Hopkins study, first graders went from 6% to 48% reading on grade level, and 85% kept those gains through the end of second grade with no further tutoring.

Our first partners said yes to a pilot, not a pitch. We asked for their students who weren’t reading, and we promised to show them the data every step of the way. When school leaders watched their most struggling readers start to decode, the conversation changed from "should we try this?" to "how many more kids can you serve?" That pattern still drives our growth. Most of our new business today comes from the partners we already serve: renewals, expansions into more schools, and superintendents telling other superintendents what they’re seeing. Word of mouth in education travels through trust, and trust is earned one classroom at a time. I also still sell. As CEO, I bring in new partnerships myself and I stay close to every renewal conversation, because I never want to be far from what our partners are experiencing. Some of my best ideas have come from sitting across the table from a district team who is trying to figure out how to ensure all of their kids learn to read on time. We also host a national Convening where district leaders share what’s working in early literacy. It’s where we first launched the First Grade Promise, and today district leaders are making the pledge to have every child reading by the end of first grade. It isn’t a sales event. But when educators see their peers committing to that goal and getting results, they want to be part of the movement.

The decision: making the First Grade Promise our north star. For years, the national conversation has centered on third grade reading scores. But by third grade, a child who can’t read has already spent years falling behind and feeling it. Our data kept telling us the same thing: when we reach children in kindergarten and first grade, the gains are faster and they last. So we committed to one goal, every child reading by the end of first grade. That doesn’t mean waiting until first grade to act. It means kindergarten instruction has to change now, and children who need more get it early. That clarity changed what we build, who we hire, and how our partners rally their whole community around one goal. The mistake: trying to be everything to everyone. In our early years, when a district asked us to serve students in any grade, we said yes. We wanted to help every child who was struggling, and saying no felt impossible. But we spread ourselves thin. Older students with years of gaps needed far more time, and our team was building for too many different needs at once. We were doing good work, but not our best work. The lesson I carry: focus is an act of care. Saying yes to everything felt generous, but children were better served when we became exceptional in the window where we could change the most lives.

Two big shifts. First, the pandemic relief money is gone. During that era, districts bought a lot of tutoring, and much of it didn’t work. Now every dollar has to justify itself, and school leaders are rightly asking, "Show me the evidence." Second, the Science of Reading has moved from a grassroots movement into state law across much of the country. Districts have adopted stronger curricula and trained their teachers, and many are discovering that it still isn’t enough for the kids with the biggest gaps. One teacher simply can’t give 25 children the one-to-one practice many of them need. We’ve adapted by leaning into accountability. More of our partnerships now tie our work to student outcomes, so districts know exactly what they’re getting. Every partner has a dedicated literacy specialist who routinely walks through their data with them, which builds their own team’s expertise along the way. And we help districts braid together Title I, special education, and state literacy dollars so the work doesn’t disappear when a grant ends. We’ve also gotten more precise about timing. Through the First Grade Promise, we help districts start in kindergarten, use summers well, and catch children before gaps harden. For students who need more time, we’re building support that carries them through second grade so they arrive in third grade ready to read to learn. Through all of it, one thing hasn’t changed. Technology can make our tutors sharper, but it will never replace them. Learning to read is deeply human. A six-year-old tries harder for someone they trust, and that relationship is what turns practice into progress.

Do this first: sit next to a child. Before you write a business plan, spend time in classrooms. Watch a six-year-old sound out a word for the first time. Watch a teacher with 25 students try to give each one what they need. Everything I’ve built comes from those moments, and any idea that can’t survive contact with a classroom isn’t ready. Then decide what outcome you’re willing to be held accountable for, and measure it from day one. For us, that’s the First Grade Promise: every child reading by the end of first grade. Kids get one shot at childhood. Don’t experiment on them without knowing whether it’s working. Ignore this: the hype cycle. Education is full of shiny trends, and funding tends to chase whatever is new. Don’t build for what’s fashionable. Build for what the research says children need, and stay with it long enough to prove it. I’d also tell them, especially the women starting out, to ignore the voice that says you need more permission, more credentials, or more time before you’re ready. I’m a cancer survivor. I was diagnosed just after my daughter was born, and it taught me that time is the one thing you can’t get back. Children feel that too. Every year a child spends unable to read is a year they don’t get back. So start before you feel ready, surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth, and keep the children at the center of every decision you make.