At Success Academy, every employee strives to show ETHOS: excellence, team, humor, ownership, scholars (putting kids first). These five principles drive everything we do as an organization and fuel our success.

For the past few weeks, I’ve focused on ways to help kids’ reading and writing soar while school is out. But children aren’t the only ones who keep learning over the summer; all our school team members learn, too.

Four ways to take your scholar’s summer writing to the next level!

We’re incredibly lucky to live in NYC, where some of the all-time best children’s books are set…

Reading challenges are a simple, creative way to inspire the reluctant readers among us and a tool to keep pushing avid readers to new heights. They are also a powerful antidote against summer slide.

We don’t want to just prevent summer slide; we want to reverse it. We want to achieve Summer Soar.

Numerous studies indicate that kids who don’t read regularly over the summer fall an average of two months behind, and that children from lower-income homes are most at risk.

For as many reading logs, timers, incentive programs, and star charts there are, there are as many individuals staunchly opposed to applying any extrinsic motivation to reading. And I can’t say I disagree with them.

In my one-bedroom apartment, you will also find six free-standing bookcases and a hall closet that’s been converted into a book nook.

Print books are still valuable. Here are three reasons why you should choose print over digital books, especially for younger children…

On Thursday President Obama announced a plan to make $250 million worth of e-books available to public libraries as part of an effort to expand literacy and “digital connectivity” among low-income students…

Somewhere along the way, poetry seems to have developed a reputation for being boring, old-fashioned, and impossible to understand. Sure, there are plenty of esoteric and oblique poems out there, but there are hundreds and hundreds of poems that are accessible and enjoyable for children.

I joined Success Academy because this job lets me do what I know is right: provide access to thousands of high-quality books to kids, most of whom live in neighborhoods without bookstores, and share my love of books and my belief in the power of reading with leaders, teachers, and kids.

One School, One Book is a powerful literacy initiative designed to help an entire school community—kids and grownups alike—fall in love with books. We piloted the program last year and have now rolled it out to all first- and second-year schools. Soon, we’ll take this initiative network-wide…

I thought I’d share my convictions of what is possible when a school develops a true love of reading across its entire community. I encourage you to add your thoughts and your own vision of what is possible in the comments section below.

I am constantly on the lookout for books about black history to add to our classroom libraries and share with scholars. So it might seem odd that I didn’t post a list of recommended books for Black History Month.

Our Director of Children’s Literature, Sara Yu answers two frequently asked parent questions about supporting children’s independent reading.

This Valentine’s Day, as we celebrate our love of books across the Success Academy network, I’d like to share some of the joyful ways we spread our love of reading.

On Monday, the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association (ALA) awarded the Randolph Caldecott Medal, the most prestigious award in children’s literature. The Caldecott Medal is awarded to “the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.”

Why are wordless picture books such an important piece of our curriculum?

The why behind our controversial fifth amendment: Every Success Academy scholar has the right to NOT finish an Independent Reading book if a compelling reason is provided.

We have compiled a list of nonfiction books that can pique your children’s interest in Dr. King and the civil rights movement and launch them into further research and discovery.

Success Academy guarantees to all scholars the following inalienable rights as readers….

This year, we’re encouraging our scholars, families, teachers and other colleagues across Success Academy schools to make reading resolutions – resolving to read MORE and read BETTER to nourish themselves as readers.