The Greater Austin Reading Coalition
Committed to Improving Reading Proficiency
Founded in 2021, the Greater Austin Reading Coalition is a diverse coalition of nonprofit and community leaders, librarians, teachers, and parents working toward a shared vision of supporting children, grades K – 3, to ensure they are reading on or above grade level by the fourth grade — a pivotal point in a child’s reading development.
By the end of third grade, children transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” If a student is not reading at grade level, they can fall behind, and are four times less likely to graduate high school than their peers. The increased earning potential of an individual who attains a high school diploma or goes on to attain a college degree is substantially greater than those who do not have the opportunity to do so.
The coalition is convened by United Way for Greater Austin as part of the organization’s collective impact work to fight poverty.

Goals & Framework
The long-term goal of the Greater Austin Reading Coalition is to ensure that all children are reading on or above grade level by the fourth grade.
To achieve this, our coalition has four strategic goals that will not only build a community culture of reading within Greater Austin, but also address the barriers that many children and families face in accessing culturally relevant reading materials and building grade-level reading proficiency.
Community Culture of Reading
Goal:
Build a community culture of reading for fun and learning, cultivating a love of books within children
Strategy 1:
Distributing books in multiple settings
Strategy 2:
Organizing special literacy events (e.g. book fairs, readings by authors, etc.)
Out-of-School Time Learning
Goal:
Provide enriching out-of-school time (OST) services with literacy goals
Strategy 1:
Creating literacy curriculum kits or activity guides
Strategy 2:
Increasing connections between OST providers and public libraries
Strategy 3:
Providing professional development training in early literacy for OST providers’ front-line staff members
Engaged Families
Goal:
Engage parents and caretakers, creating accessible resources for building their child(ren)’s reading proficiency
Strategy 1:
Offering workshops and training opportunities to parents/caretakers
Strategy 2:
Promoting websites or apps with high-quality family reading activities
Strategy 3:
Sponsoring family literacy nights
High-Dosage Tutoring
Goal:
Provide OST high-dosage tutoring during, supporting reading skill development
Strategy 1:
Scaling local tutoring programs that are highly effective
Coalition Members
These organizations and individuals share a mutual commitment to improving opportunities for local children by increasing grade-level reading rates in the Greater Austin community:
- Bastrop ISD
- Bavu & Ellison Blakes
- Black Pearl Books
- Best Buddies of Central Texas
- BookSpring
- Boys and Girls Club of Greater Austin
- BRAVE Communities
- Capital Area Alliance of Black School Educators
- Cherrylynn Burris
- Christ Together Greater Austin
- Communities in Schools of Central Texas
- E3 Alliance
- Education Austin
- Frischo, Ltd.
- Go Austin/Vamos Austin
- Half Helen
- Leander Educational Excellence Foundation
- Literacy First
- Pflugerville Education Foundation
- Pflugerville ISD
- Pflugerville Public Library
- Sammy’s House
- Texas Book Festival
- Texas Empowerment Academy
- Travis County Health and Human Services
- United Way for Greater Austin
- Welcome Table
- YMCA of Austin
You can help make a difference!
We all have the power to move the needle on grade-level reading rates in our community. All you have to do is care, engage, and act.
Together, we can help ensure that every child in Greater Austin has the opportunity to tap into their full potential.

To learn more, please contact:
Michelle Hutson-Crawford
Director of K-12 Education
512-225-0359
Michelle.Hutson-Crawford@uwatx.org
Stay Informed
Sign up to receive stories about our impact, news about what's happening in our community, and information about how you can make a real difference.