ENGAGING FAMILIES, TRANSFORMING SCHOOLS:  LAUSD’S EARLY LITERACY SUCCESS

Challenge

Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) “Ready for the World” strategic plan was developed to ensure all students graduate prepared for college, career, and life. Recognizing the importance of starting at the beginning, LAUSD set out to solve the problem where it starts—early learning. Many students enter school without the foundational skills needed for literacy, creating a gap that widens as they progress through their education.

To combat this, the district partnered with Footsteps2Brilliance (F2B) to pilot a bilingual literacy program at Dayton Heights and State Street schools. This initiative aligned with district objectives to create consistency across Early Education Centers (EECs), increase parental engagement, support English and Spanish learners, report on DRDP-aligned skills, and provide a scalable model for success district-wide.

Results

The program achieved significant progress in just three months with PreK students, demonstrating the potential of early literacy interventions:

• Student Engagement: Students interacted with 1,318,140 vocabulary words, read 4,568 books, played 13,153 literacy games, and completed 1,536 pre-emergent writing activities while spending 642 hours on literacy.

• Parental Involvement: Families logged over 91 hours of homebased literacy support, fostering a shared commitment to student success.

• DRDP Skill Growth: DRDP scores showed a 10% improvement in Language & Literacy Development (LLD) and an 18% improvement in Cognition (COG), with initial scores rising from 77% to 87% and 71% to 89%, respectively.

Engaging Diverse Communities

With 73% of LAUSD students identifying as Latino/Hispanic, the bilingual capabilities of F2B were key to the pilot’s success. The program’s language toggle feature allowed students to seamlessly switch between English and Spanish, promoting inclusivity and enabling families to engage more effectively. By meeting students where they are linguistically, F2B fostered a deeper connection between home and school learning environments.

A Framework for Scalable Success

This model shows how strategic, data-driven initiatives can deliver measurable results. Footsteps2Brilliance aligned its materials with the DRDP framework, giving teachers actionable insights to tailor instruction and support student needs. By integrating a bilingual, technology-based literacy program, LAUSD created a scalable framework for other schools to replicate.

DATA 4/9/24 – 6/24/24

Words Read: 1,318,140

Books Read: 4,568

Hours Reading: 642

Average Comprehension Score: 82%

Leadership Testimonials

“Footsteps2Brilliance helps early kindergarten skills preparing students for a successful experience when they transition to elementary school.”   Meliza Rodriguez, Dayton Heights Principal

“Footsteps2Brilliance is a great supplemental resource.” Kandis Hamblet, State Street Principal

Teacher Testimonials

“This is an excellent educational app that will benefit our children’s learning development across all domains of the DRDP learning assessment. Thank you team for all that you have done! Dayton EEC is grateful for all your support.”  Teacher

“I loved how the program was very well created for our students; it made the children excited to use it everyday. Thank you for creating it for our children.”    Teacher

“My students loved the songs and changing it to English and Spanish… Thank you overall. I enjoyed the feedback and what each child needed more help on.” Teacher

“I truly believe all of the program is excellent. I am excited because my parents/families now have access to do the program with their child at home.”Teacher

“I like that we can incorporate Heggerty and the theme of the Creative Curriculum into our group time.” Teacher