Eighty percent of students from low-income households are unable to read proficiently, yet 74 percent of class time is spent on busy work not aligned to grade-level expectations.
CommonLit is a nonprofit education technology organization dedicated to ensuring that all students, especially students in Title I schools, graduate with the reading, writing, communication, and problem-solving skills they need to be successful in college and beyond. The organization offers teachers free access to over 2,000 high-quality reading passages for students in grades three through 12, complemented by aligned interim assessments, growth-oriented data, and expert-led teacher development. Over the past year, the organization has grown its earned revenue by 66 percent, increasing its scale and sustainability.
In July 2022, CommonLit launched “Target Lessons,” which are easy-to-use, complete lessons that build off CommonLit’s comprehensive 360 curriculum and support reading, writing, and classroom discussion. These lessons focus on a particular skill, like identifying the main idea, that students use to deeply understand a text and include scaffolded Pre-Reading, During Reading, and Post-Reading questions that give students multiple opportunities to practice the skill and build comprehension.
While effectiveness data for the Target Lessons are forthcoming, use of CommonLit has been shown to improve reading and writing for students. An internal evaluation found that 63 percent of students using CommonLit achieved gains in ELA from pretest to post test, with an average +0.30 effect size improvement in reading and +0.25 in writing. The organization expects that Target Lessons will only strengthen the impact of its work going forward.
Overdeck Family Foundation provided funding to support CommonLit in developing and launching CommonLit 360, a full English Language Arts Curriculum that fills a unique gap in the market as the first-ever digital open education resources ELA Curriculum with an interactive student platform. CommonLit developed Target Lessons as part of this launch, providing even more wraparound offerings for educators and students.
