Literacy Mid-South improves the quality of life in our community through education by providing literacy programs for adults and children as well as a network of collaborative projects with some of the Mid-South's finest educational organizations.

LitLab.ai is an AI-powered foundational reading platform that makes practice more differentiated, joyful, and curriculum-aligned. Built by literacy specialists, researchers, and former educators, LitLab equips teachers with high-quality decodable content, personalized fluency practice for students, and actionable data to accelerate literacy growth.

Littera Education is a tutoring service provider supporting districts with the components necessary for delivering high-impact tutoring programs. For this project, Littera will work closely with their existing curriculum partner, Edmentum, to deliver a tutoring program using Exact Path as the tutoring curriculum. Students receive a minimum of three tutoring sessions per week, with a minimum of 30 minutes per session. Data will inform the session content, and tutors will use curriculum materials to deliver targeted lessons to students, either 1:1 or in a small group of up to three students. They seek to learn if students participating in consistent virtual tutoring focused on an Exact Path Diagnostic skills path experience more accelerated.

Through a partnership between Louisiana Kids Matter and the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE), Louisiana will provide tutoring to students in grades K-5 ELA through BookNook, and in grades K-8 Math through Zearn. Through the SLR grant, the state will initially pilot with four school systems to launch and scale effective tutoring. The state will support these four school systems in all aspects of preparation, including training for educators and support in scheduling tutoring during the school day. Additionally, school systems will contract directly with their tutoring providers, BookNook and Zearn, to offer statewide professional development for district and school staff implementing tutoring.

Lyndsey Brightful is an educator and leader with a wealth of experience in mathematics education. In February 2023, she joined the Maryland State Department of Education’s (MSDE) Office of Teaching and Learning as Director of Mathematics, where she provides leadership and content expertise through facilitation of all statewide math programs prekindergarten through grade 12 in Maryland schools. Prior to joining MSDE, Lyndsey worked as a math teacher, coach, department chair, and school administrator in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Lyndsey earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Hampton University, and a Master of Science degree in Secondary Educational Studies from Johns Hopkins University. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in Instructional Leadership for Changing Populations at Notre Dame of Maryland University. Lyndsey’s commitment to excellence and equity in math education is an inspiration to all who work alongside her. She grounds this commitment in her dedication to facilitating a joyful, relevant, and empowering math learning experience for all Maryland students, including her own 2 young children.

Magpie Literacy will examine the efficacy of their technology-enabled instructional tool on improving foundational literacy skills among kindergarten students. The study will enroll up to 40 classrooms, with 50% receiving the instructional tool during the 2024-2025 school year. Magpie Literacy anticipates partnering with various organizations, each with their unique implementation model. The partnership will involve collaborating on research study design, securing agreements, building and testing integrated prototypes, preparing for implementation, supporting deployment, and processing data and findings. Magpie Literacy remains committed to effective solutions and values their ongoing partnership with Accelerate, whose support and expertise have been instrumental in their growth and ability to adapt to the evolving education landscape while prioritizing student impact.

Maria Rodriguez is the Education Associate for Multilingual Learners with the Delaware Department of Education. As the child of two first generation Puerto Rican parents, Maria realized the often unrecognized benefits of bilingualism and the rich assets that multilingual learners bring to the community and our schools. Over the course of the last 20 years, she has dedicated her career to working with Multilingual learners, starting her career as an elementary teacher in the bilingual program and then as the multilingual learner teacher. In 2015, Maria joined the Department of Education, where she developed professional learning opportunities, and provided supports to districts/charters across the state to implement best practices for multilingual learners. Maria has led the development and implementation of Delaware’s Multilingual Learner Strategic Plans and collaboratively created the Delaware Design for High-Quality Multilingual Learner Education, a research-based roadmap to ensuring that Multilingual learners engage in the highest quality education to prepare them with the linguistic, cultural and academic skills necessary for the 21st century. Maria is committed to designing and implementing policies that are aligned with the most recent research for students who are not yet meeting grade level expectations.

A grant to the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) will build on its existing $20 million partnership with Arnold Ventures and Saga Education, which has already laid a foundation for high-dosage tutoring (HDT) in middle school math and Algebra 1—critical areas for student success. Supporting 10,000 students each year, the grant would enable MSDE to refine evidence-based implementation strategies, strengthen infrastructure, and generate measurable outcomes that demonstrate HDT's effectiveness.

Math Corps will leverage Accelerate's support to expand their reach and serve K-3 students, providing earlier intervention support through high-impact math tutoring. The Call to Effective Action grant will focus on K-3 Math Corps, which operates in Minnesota and at select sites in Mississippi and New York, with expansion planned for the 2024-2025 school year. The funding from Accelerate will support an implementation study of K-3 Math Corps in select districts during the 2024-2025 school year, aiming to build program evidence and prepare for a more robust randomized controlled trial (RCT) to be completed in the 2025-2026 school year. Math Corps is honored to be a Call to Effective Action grantee and excited to support more students with this promising model for individualized instruction.

Math-A-Matics Tutoring provides high-dosage tutoring supporting all levels of mathematics, serving over 15,000 students across 65+ schools in 16 states. With 85% achieving state standards, we empower students to Catch Up, Keep Up, & Get Ahead!

Michelle Korbakes serves as the ACCELerate NM Project Manager at the New Mexico Public Education Department. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and an Administrative Certificate from New Mexico State University, along with a Master of Science in Reading Instruction from Walden University.

Dr. Michelle Wallace is the Assistant Superintendent of Instruction at the Virginia Department of Education where she leads the state’s efforts to support 131 school divisions in English, Humanities, Math, Science, and Health, Physical and Driver Education programming. Over the last 25 years in education, she has been a high school science teacher; division leader in PK-12 instruction, federal grant implementation, professional learning, teacher mentoring programs, and technology; and state leader in school quality improvement and K-12 instruction. She is a systems thinker and has led many projects division- and state-wide that coordinate across offices and programs to produce positive instructional supports which have led to better student outcomes. She has a passion for growing others’ leadership skills to drive innovation and success. She keeps students and teachers at the foundation of the work to remain committed to excellence for quality educational experiences.

New Schools for New Orleans (NSNO) will  recruit a cadre of tutors, including high school seniors and college students, to deliver high-impact tutoring across the New Orleans area. Working with the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans (ERA-NOLA), NSNO will learn more about the effectiveness of the student-to-student tutoring model and whether early exposure to working with students influences tutors’ decisions to pursue teaching as a career. NSNO will partner with local universities, including Tulane University, Dillard University, and the University of New Orleans, to recruit tutors who will serve students in some of New Orleans’ largest charter management organizations. NSNO’s tutoring program will focus on students in grades 3-4 and 6-7 who scored below proficient on the 2022 state assessment. This project will deliver valuable findings about the efficacy of recruiting high school and college students as tutors, and also has the potential to cultivate more prospective teachers in the New Orleans’ teacher pipeline.