Georgia Reads Celebrates READBowl Students, Literacy Partners at State Capitol
Print This Post
Georgia politicians, literacy leaders and students gathered at the Georgia State Capitol to recognize the 2025 Georgia Reads Community Award winners and READBowl Champions on Feb. 25 as part of an ongoing effort to boost reading levels statewide.
Former football player and literacy coach Malcolm Mitchell pumped up the crowd of pre-K to high school students at the capitol building. He told the kids: “When I say read, you say succeed.” The spacious hall echoed with their chants.
It’s the kind of high-energy event the Georgia Council on Literacy aims to put on to engage young readers. At the Feb. 25 Georgia Reads Day at the capitol, the buzzing students were recognized as READBowl champions. The global reading competition recognizes classrooms with the highest average reading minutes — Georgia students read 61 million minutes during this year’s contest.
The group also honored ten Georgia Reads Community Award recipients for work with proven reading improvements. The contest launched on Sept. 30 and garnered over 61 applicants. The winners received $25,000 each to fund literacy work.
“It’s not easy, but you put in the work, and you put in the time,” Mitchell said.
The awards are part of an ongoing statewide effort to increase Georgia’s literacy rates. The state ranks 28th in the nation for fourth-grade reading proficiency. The Georgia Department of Education found that 42 percent of third graders were rated proficient readers or above on their 2019 milestone test.
In 2023, the Senate passed a bill creating a 30-person Georgia Council on Literacy and a statewide literacy coach. The officials monitor the implementation of the “science of reading” based educational approach and push for reading initiatives like the community awards.
State Sen. Billy Hickman, a council member and the Education and Youth Committee chair, said this is the first step in years of grants. Moving forward, he said the state senate will work to get literacy coaches in schools all across Georgia.
“It took a while to get her,” Hickman said. “We had to identify the problem, and the problem identified is that our children can’t read.”
State leaders honed in on early education to ensure students don’t get left behind later on in schooling. Hickman said as kids get older, they’re more likely to fall behind in school and potentially drop out entirely.
But Georgia politicians are optimistic. Hickman said the train is getting “bigger and bigger,” and he is seeing the excitement from students, parents and teachers. State Rep. Chris Erwin, chairman of the House Education Committee, joked the students in the crowd would become the greatest of all time, known in slang as the “G.O.A.T.”
“You’re on your way to becoming the G.O.A.Ts of reading in Georgia,” Erwin said.
Celebrating student readers is one piece of the literacy puzzle. Another is supporting organizations that have been doing on-the-ground literacy work for years. The Georgia Reads Community Awards recognized ten groups around the state doing just that.
The 2025 Georgia Reads Community Award winners include Believe Greater Dalton, Ben Hill School District, Black Child Development Institute-Atlanta, Charlton County Board of Education, Cobb Collaborative, Dooly County Schools, Lamar County School System, Marietta City Schools, Read Source & Purpose-Built Schools of Atlanta, and RISE Augusta.
Believe Greater Dalton, the strategic planning initiative of the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce, spent a decade creating a framework of partners dedicated to literacy for all children by third grade.
“We’ve been working for many, many years to raise the bar,” Early Childhood Initiative Director Suzanne Harbin said. “That third-grade reading score is such a gateway to other things that the kids, our students will be able to do.”
The education lead at Believe Greater Dalton said she is big on parent engagement and making sure parents understand “they are the child’s first teacher.” The partnership between local schools, colleges, companies, faith-based organizations and nonprofits will focus its new funding on books for literacy events and resources for summer reading programs in two counties.
Cobb Collaborative Executive Director Irene Barton said the journey is a “lot of little steps.” The award recipient is a partnership between the local libraries, Marietta City schools, faith communities, public health groups and nonprofits.
“You don’t realize, like just one partnership being formed or one program being launched,” Barton said. “But when you string it together and look at where you came from, it’s like, wow, we really have done a lot.”
Cobb Collaborative, a Georgia Family Connection Collaborative, will use the funds to boost literacy ambassadors, family literacy resources, a community story walk trail and the ongoing Mayor’s Reading Club program. Barton said five of the county’s seven mayors go into the community and read to kids through the club. About 150 mayors participate in the program statewide.
The Mayor’s Reading Club was launched by the Georgia Municipal Association, a group that represents all 537 cities in Georgia. GMA CEO and Executive Director Larry Hanson said literacy is a core focus for the organization.
“We know how critical it is for the future of cities to have a generation of young people that are literate and that are prepared for the future,” Hanson said.
Like the dozens of literacy professionals and politicians in attendance on Feb. 25, Hanson acknowledged the solution isn’t “one size fits all.” He hopes the municipal association can collaborate with Georgia cities to tailor reading programs to every student.
“Literacy is a solvable problem; it just takes a commitment of resources, time, and parents and adults setting an example,” Hanson said.
Read the story on saportareport.com.