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While teachers and students nationwide are finishing the school year, we at ReadWorks are already working hard behind the scenes to ensure a successful start in the fall. Throughout this year, our generous donors enabled us to deepen our impact in under-resourced communities. Stay tuned this summer for our 2025-2026 report card to hear more about how ReadWorks made a difference this year! Help ReadWorks Keep Classroom Resources 100% Free!
As a nonprofit, ReadWorks bridges the gap by providing barrier-free access to top-tier instructional support. Your donation directly impacts classrooms in communities where access to high-quality literacy materials will make the biggest impact. We need your help to keep these vital resources completely free for educators next year. It costs ReadWorks approximately $5 per teacher, so every gift counts and makes a difference! Celebrate joyful and confident readers today with a tax-deductible donation. Thank you!  Earth Day Winners Announced! ReadWorks' annual Earth Day contest encouraged students to creatively illustrate what inspired them and brought them joy while reading articles written in partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). We received nearly 8,000 entries this year - nearly double last year’s entries! Teachers across the country created nearly 20,000 assignments with these Earth Day passages, empowering young readers to learn more about our ecosystem while building their vocabulary and reading confidence.
Rebecca actively channels her professional expertise into the social sector. She currently serves on the board of directors for Boundless Literacy in New Haven and recently collaborated with Jackfruit Network, an education social enterprise in Kenya, to redesign their data collection methodologies. She is excited to spend the summer with the ReadWorks team and work on several projects across tech, marketing, and research. Welcome, Rebecca! Dive Deeper into ReadWorks’ Latest News & Content
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 With state lawmakers and parents pushing back against classroom technology use, the national reading nonprofit reaffirms its steadfast pledge to support teachers with multi-format resources. In response to growing scrutiny of classroom technology, ReadWorks is underscoring its educator-first approach with flexible, evidence-based resources designed to support, not replace, teacher-led instruction Recent reporting from EdSurge (“Screen Time Concerns Lead to Backlash Against Edtech Vetting Process”), highlights rising concerns among parents, teachers, and lawmakers about the unchecked proliferation of student-facing digital devices. Several states are now introducing rigorous vetting standards and screen-time bans in early elementary grades to combat digital distraction and privacy concerns. Amid growing concerns around classroom screen time, ReadWorks continues to prioritize teacher-led instruction with flexible, evidence-based resources that can be used in print or digitally. Our platform is designed to make high-quality reading instruction accessible and manageable for educators, not to replace them or require student-facing technology. That’s why teachers have always had the ability to print and deliver resources in the way that works best for their classrooms. “Our mission as a nonprofit has always been to build products that are easy to incorporate into the curriculum that is already being taught in the classroom, engaging for students, and highly impactful for teachers.,” said Dr. Susanne Nobles, Chief Academic Officer of ReadWorks. “We have never created tech for student-facing multimedia engagement. We believe in providing both high-quality print and digital capabilities, leaving the choice of delivery entirely in the hands of the educator.” This teacher-first approach is reflected in a nationwide demand in educators for tangible, printed reading materials. Over this school year alone, more than 419,000 educators have actively utilized ReadWorks’ print capabilities to deliver high-quality physical texts that build essential background knowledge and vocabulary. As a nonprofit dedicated to equitable access, these offerings are all free of charge! A Principled Stance on Artificial Intelligence As the educational technology industry rushes to implement student-facing Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools that introduce additional screen time and unvetted algorithmic risks, ReadWorks has made a deliberate, mission-driven decision to not prioritize AI tools for student use. Instead, the nonprofit currently only uses AI internally as a backend productivity tool to help accelerate and streamline our work. Proven Impact, Trusted by Millions ReadWorks continues to prove that exceptional, evidence-based instruction does not require flashy tech stacks or gamified distractions. The nonprofit’s success is anchored by core proof points that drive measurable student impact:
Written by: Melissa CalderDirector of Marketing and Engagement Every year, educators across the country go above and beyond to make reading instruction engaging, meaningful, and impactful for students. This year, we are thrilled to recognize ten incredible ReadWorks super users whose dedication to literacy and consistent use of ReadWorks has stood out in a big way. These educators have assigned hundreds of reading passages, supported students with thousands of activities, and made ReadWorks an essential part of learning in their classrooms and schools. Their commitment to helping students build background knowledge, strengthen comprehension skills, and grow as confident readers deserves to be celebrated. Meet Our Top 10 Super Users of 2025–2026 1. Marijoy C - Virginia Marijoy led the way this year with an astounding 852 assignments and 1,135 student activities completed. Her students engaged deeply with reading all year long, making literacy practice a daily habit. 2. Emily K - Texas Emily’s classroom saw incredible engagement, with 871 student activities completed and consistent implementation across the school year. Her commitment to student reading growth truly shines. 3. Monyette - Mississippi Monyette helped students in her Missouri classroom complete 824 reading activities while maintaining strong classroom usage throughout the year. Her dedication to literacy instruction is making a lasting impact on students. She's been a ReadWorks users for three years! 4. Sherri H - Utah Sherri demonstrated exceptional consistency and depth of implementation, supporting students through hundreds of meaningful reading interactions and classroom assignments. 5. Tara W - Maryland Tara’s students benefited from a high level of engagement with ReadWorks content this year. Her thoughtful use of reading resources helped keep literacy learning active and accessible. 6. Lori K - Minnesota Lori’s commitment to reading instruction helped drive more than 500 student activities this year. Her classroom clearly values strong literacy habits and regular reading practice. 7. Raymond H - Illinois Raymond created a highly engaged reading environment, with students completing hundreds of activities and interacting consistently with nonfiction texts and comprehension supports. 8. Jennifer W - Iowa Jennifer stood out with remarkable assignment usage and a strong implementation strategy that helped students stay actively involved in reading throughout the year. 9. Dinise M - Indiana Dinise has been using ReadWorks for many years with her adult learners at her local community college. Her classroom has demonstrated outstanding dedication to literacy growth through regular use of ReadWorks resources and strong student participation. You can find Dinise as a guest speaker on some of our webinars that focus on using ReadWorks with adult learners! "ReadWorks is an essential tool in my adult education classroom. It helps bridge the reading gap by offering diverse, high-interest topics that validate their life experiences, ultimately promoting a culture of equity, inclusion, building self-confidence and interest in reading." - Dinise M. 10. Imelda C - Texas Imelda helped foster an active reading culture as a tutor in Houston Texas, encouraging students to engage with rich nonfiction texts and meaningful comprehension practice all year long. She's been an avid ReadWorks user for two years! Thank You for Inspiring Readers To our super users: thank you for the time, care, and energy you pour into your students every day. Your work is helping students become stronger readers, more curious learners, and more confident thinkers. At ReadWorks, we are continually inspired by educators like you who make literacy instruction come alive in classrooms across the country. Congratulations on an incredible year! This year’s Earth Day Illustration Contest was our biggest yet, and we are thrilled to celebrate the incredible creativity, care, and environmental awareness shown by students across the country. We received nearly 8,000 illustration entries this year, almost double last year’s approximately 4,000 submissions. Expanding the contest to include additional grade levels clearly helped drive participation, and the excitement from classrooms was felt every step of the way. Even more encouraging, teacher feedback continues to be overwhelmingly positive as educators use these articles to spark meaningful conversations about conservation, ecosystems, and protecting our planet. This year’s contest featured 13 National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) articles, and every single article was actively used by educators and students. The most popular article was “Monarchs on the Move” for 7th grade, which reached 1,998 educators and generated 2,886 Assignments. Across the month-long contest, we saw:
“As a middle school science teacher, I have been utilizing ReadWorks to support my students’ reading skills as we make our way through our life science curriculum. As a visual learner myself, I try to take any opportunity to enable students with a similar learning style to share what they have learned artistically. When I saw that ReadWorks was hosting their Earth Day Illustration Contest, I shared it with my students and encouraged them to enter. Steven is a strong science student and an incredibly gifted artist, and I was thrilled to see the artwork that he created. I was even more impressed by his words describing the process of learning about the challenges of the herring as they journey to spawn. Steven truly took the opportunity to connect science concepts with creativity in a meaningful and personal way. I loved seeing all my students take ideas about protecting the environment and communicating scientific understanding and transform them into thoughtful, original artwork. Opportunities like this help students recognize that science is not just about memorizing facts, but also about observation, communication, and expressing ideas in different ways.” - Teacher: Crista Tiboldo A huge thank you goes out to our partner The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), and the volunteers from Jefferies who helped review and judge nearly 8,000 illustrations in an incredibly short amount of time. Your support made this celebration of student creativity possible. And now, congratulations to our winners!
To every student who submitted artwork, every teacher who participated, and every classroom that joined us in celebrating Earth Day through reading and creativity: thank you. Your illustrations showed not only artistic talent, but also empathy for wildlife, ecosystems, and the world around us.
We are already looking forward to next year’s contest! Second grade can be a key transition year where young readers begin moving from decoding words to making meaning from texts. At ReadWorks, we provide educators and families with research-backed tools to build strong reading comprehension skills in second-grade students. Our free, easy-to-use materials help students recognize story structure, understand an author’s purpose, compare ideas, and build vocabulary, all while staying engaged. Reading Comprehension Strategies for Second GradeSecond grade is a critical year where reading comprehension becomes a primary goal of instruction, as students develop the ability to make meaning from text, build vocabulary, and think critically. Reading with increased fluency, improving accuracy, speed, and expression.
How ReadWorks Supports Second Grade Reading ComprehensionAt ReadWorks, we design our resources to align with both the developmental needs of second-grade readers and the evidence-based strategies proven to support them. It’s easy to filter by grade level and resource type when logged into ReadWorks to find the exact material needed for the skill being taught.
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