Barksdale Reading Institute

02/06/2024

10/19/2023

Join the Reading Universe team for a virtual tour of Reading Universe today (Wednesday, October 18th at 7pm, ET), where they will unveil key features and resources that teachers can use to support their reading and writing instruction in the classroom, all for FREE. Register at https://bit.ly/RUvirtualtour3

Newly-launched, Reading Universe is your FREE research-based guide to teaching reading and writing. The site features an interactive taxonomy of reading skills with step-by-step guides, and classroom videos that show the process and modifications that help bring lessons to fruition for each child. Reading Universe is produced by three premier non-profit organizations: WETA/Reading Rockets, the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.

09/28/2023

We are thrilled that our friends at The Mississippi Children's Museum have stepped up to take over as the statewide affiliate for Reach Out and Read. BRI, in partnership with University of Mississippi Medical Center, served in this role for the past several years and is so grateful to see the program continue.

Our Partners Reach Out and Read We are thrilled to share the exciting news of our partnership with Reach Out and Read, a distinguished national nonprofit dedicated to promoting healthy parent-child relationships through shared reading. This collaboration represents a significant step forward in our....

09/04/2023

Just in time for the new school year… Reading Universe has launched and they’re ready to help educators right now! Be one of the first to explore their interactive site with a map of reading skills paired with how-tos, lesson plans, printable student practice activities, decodables, and so much more — all for FREE! Visit www.ReadingUniverse.org and start exploring now!

Thanks for supporting teachers everywhere Reading Universe, Barksdale Reading Institute, and WETA.

07/01/2023

It’s a bittersweet day at The Barksdale Reading Institute as we watch our last day come to a close. Over the past 20+ years we’ve had the joy of working with countless educators, policy makers, researchers, organizations, community and government leaders, and most importantly… children and families, to help improve literacy in Mississippi. Thank you to Jim Barksdale for identifying the mission, setting the bar high, and generously funding the work. Thank you to our partners and friends in the field, who will continue this critical work. And thank you to our cadre of incredibly dedicated and talented staff who made it their life’s mission to elevate literacy to the Barksdale standard.

We are pleased to know that our work will live on through other organizations who have stepped up to take certain pieces on as their own. We will share information about our projects and programs that we have “spun”‘off to find new homes with some of our sister organizations in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned!

06/15/2023

https://youtu.be/V8DdW4fysYk

Mississippi has a long track record of educational failure. But a major reform initiative now has kids showing significant progress in school. It’s an approa...

06/15/2023

https://twitter.com/AmanpourCoPBS/status/1669091645562789889?s=20

“Mississippi’s success in education over the last decade “takes away the excuse for all the rest of us, for our failures to teach education,” says New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof. ”

06/01/2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/31/opinion/mississippi-education-poverty.html

The state shows that poverty is no excuse for failing to teach kids to read.

05/31/2023

Tune in to hear about Mississippi!

Mississippi was once ranked last in the nation for reading achievement, but today has turned the tide. The state reached the national average for 4th grade reading on the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress and scored above the national average in 2022 in spite of the pandemic. The folk...