Literably Wins $1 Million Grant To Get Every Child in America Reading at Grade Level

• Diagnostic Assessment Platform Helps Students Avoid COVID Slide
• Literably Spotlight, A New Administrator Report, is Now Available
• "Whole Child Intelligence" Approach to Literacy Supports 200,000 Students in Over 150 Districts Across the US

SAN FRANCISCO, May 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Literably, the reading assessment platform that empowers educators to "know every reader," today announced it has been awarded a prestigious one million dollar grant from the United States Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences' (ED/IES) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. SBIR grants are awarded to startups building game-changing technologies with the potential to positively benefit society.

Literably will use the grant to further develop its comprehensive K12 literacy assessment platform. Literably's solution efficiently and accurately quantifies a wide array of literacy measures that provide educators with an understanding of each child's optimal instructional path to reading proficiency. Literably's expanded capabilities will build upon its existing Oral Reading Fluency and Foundational Skills solutions, which are already deployed in hundreds of U.S. schools.

"We are extremely honored and excited to have won this grant, which allows us to build even more value for our partner schools and districts," said Tyler Borek, chief executive officer, Literably. "We are committed to developing a diagnostic assessment tool that teachers love and administrators can rely on, and that allows students to be understood as individuals with unique needs."

The United States still struggles to ensure that every child graduates from a K12 program with a mastery of reading. Approximately 63 percent of fourth grade students read at or below a basic level, and 34 percent read below a basic level. These results are avoidable. With appropriately tailored instruction, the large majority of students can achieve reading proficiency.

In the context of COVID learning loss and teacher shortages, the need for solutions that empower teachers in the classroom and offer diagnostic intelligence in specific learning categories is higher than ever.

By providing literacy educators with an immediate, accurate and actionable picture of each student's reading capabilities and challenges, Literably solves four primary challenges with conventional teacher-administered reading assessments: efficiency, consistency, data access and instructional next steps.

"Adopting a whole child intelligence approach and implementing complementary technology solutions has not only helped us avoid the 'COVID slide,' but we have also seen marked improvements in overall literacy," said Glen Warren, director of literacy, outreach and libraries, Encinitas Union School District.

"With Literably, I can see at a glance who needs extra reading help and I can sort student reading data by comprehension level – this dashboard of data is my number one favorite feature of Literably," said Susan Lavelle, literacy coach for Union School District in San Jose, CA. "As a literacy coach I know exactly what is needed to support every teacher and student individually for their unique needs.

About the ED/IES SBIR Program
The Department of Education's Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR), administered by IES, provides awards for the research and development of new, commercially viable education technology products. Known as ED/IES SBIR, the program's goal is to grow a portfolio of scalable, research-based products that address pressing needs across topic areas in education and special education.

About Literably
Literably is a diagnostic digital reading assessment platform that replicates teacher-administered assessments online and enables educators to know every reader. Literably provides literacy educators with an immediate, accurate and actionable picture of each student's reading capabilities and challenges. Schools use Literably to solve four primary challenges with conventional teacher-administered reading assessments: efficiency, consistency, data access and instructional next steps. Currently, Literably uses a blend of normed human grading and speech recognition to score two reading assessments online for schools and districts: Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) and Foundational Skills (FS). Research led by a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education has shown that Literably ORF can predict student performance on the Smarter Balanced assessment. Literably currently serves over 200,000 students at over 500 schools in 34 states. Literably was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

SOURCE Literably