ReadOKC helps improve literacy across the district

ReadOKC provides helpful resources and programs to children in the Oklahoma City Public Schools District.   

“The mission of ReadOKC is to instill the love of reading in the students of OKCPS and in our community,” said Courtney Scott, executive director of communications for Oklahoma City Public Schools. 

ReadOKC offers reading challenges for students during school breaks with a goal for every student to read 20 minutes per day and to improve access to reading materials for all children. The program recruits adults to serve as reading buddies. 

The initiative was started in 2017 by the OKCPS Compact, which is made up of five entities: OKCPS, Oklahoma City Public Schools Foundation, City of Oklahoma City, Greater Oklahoma City Chamber and United Way of Central Oklahoma. 

The OKCPS Compact works to identify high priority needs of the school district. Improving literacy was identified as the greatest need for the district at that time.  

“ReadOKC is a very unique initiative because it is rare to find a program like this serving all grades and all schools districtwide,” she said. 

ReadOKC and its programs serve about 34,000 students annually from pre-K through 12th grade. 

Aside from ReadOKC, there are other programs that help improve student engagement in literacy. Book Clubs are also offered for middle and high schoolers who meet with their reading buddy once a week, which include about six to eight students who meet with an adult volunteer each week. 

“They will work through reading the same book and discuss the portion of the book that they’ve read over the past week when they meet,” said Abbie Vaughan, who serves as director of community outreach for the Oklahoma City Public Schools Foundation. 

Little Libraries is another program that is available for all students. Little Libraries are free book boxes that are installed outside of every elementary, middle and high school, and installed in some OKC public parks. 

“Little Libraries is a ‘take a book, return a book’ free book exchange that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” she said. 

There are several ways to support the ReadOKC initiative. 

“Volunteering as a Reading Buddy; volunteering on the ReadOKC On the Go! Book Bus; donating prizes and incentives for Reading Challenge winners; and donating new and gently used books for the Little Libraries and ReadOKC On the Go!” Scott said. “Monetary donations are also welcome and will help advance the mission of ReadOKC and its three primary goals.” 

People who want to volunteer or be involved can contact Vaughan at [email protected]. For more information, people can visit ReadOKC / About ReadOKC (okcps.org).