Billions. With a B.

Billions have been on my mind quite a bit lately.

Not billions in fairy-tale valuations of growing EdTech companies. Like Icarus, many of them fly real high. High enough to attract the interest of wide eyed investors. Alas, too close to the sun to be real.

The billions on my mind are the billions of dollars that we as a nation have appropriated and spent trying to improve reading scores. Scores that, even prior to the pandemic, remained relatively flat.

It’s staggering. The disappointing return on our investment in literacy occurs on the backdrop of general agreement that we do know how to teach kids to read. Those reading wars of yore seem to finally be over. A winner has been called.

And yet, gains in literacy elude us.

We’re clearly missing something. Something major. So, as a thriving industry that markets so many flavors of literacy solutions, it’s on us to lock arms with educators, researchers and innovators to nail that missing piece.

Like a moth to light, I’ve been drawn to Beable Education, a company whose approach to accelerating literacy authentically addresses student motivation. Literacy…with a clear “why”. Over the past few years I’ve dedicated quite a lot of time to actively supporting their efforts, in an advisory and consulting capacity.

Beable reaches even learners for whom the traditional motivators — grades, pleasing parents and teachers, staying on track to graduation… these motivators simply aren’t effective enough.

Unless you are at one of the early adopting districts who’ve signed on to approach literacy differently, it’s unlikely that you have heard of Beable. You will, though.

As for me, I’ve now turned my sights elsewhere, to another area of education where billions are invested yet challenges remain and impact beckons. More on that soon.