Can You Read This? Help Make Sure Every Fourth Grader Can Read It, Too.

“Literacy permeates everything,” says J3 Foundation’s co-founder Joe Blackstone. Imagine staring at these words and not being able to decipher them. Most people, those reading this included, take reading for granted – but 45 million adults in the U.S. are functionally illiterate (Pro Publica). Those who live with the lowest literacy skills live in poverty. J3 Foundation knows the solution lies in providing reading intervention – and fourth grade is where it matters most.

“You get to fourth grade and if you have fallen behind in your reading proficiency, you simply can’t catch up,” says Blackstone. “Two-thirds of students who can’t read proficiently by the end of fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare.” 

That’s why J3’s mission is straightforward but critical: To give kids who might otherwise be left behind the foundation they need for a lifetime of success. And for children in communities that lack resources, that becomes even more crucial.  

J3’s unique approach to creating joyful, confident, lifelong readers combines in-school intervention and after-school support, using evidence-based research to achieve the best outcomes. “By partnering with the schools, we can identify who needs help early and provide small group instruction that makes a huge difference,” says Stacee Longo, J3’s senior program director. The impact is transformative.

When Rosalia first joined J3’s reading program, she looked her reading coach in the eye and said simply, “I can’t read.” Scared and convinced she’d never be able to read, she was exactly the kind of student J3 aims to reach.

J3’s Cozy Reading Club brings together highly qualified teachers, personalized lessons with measurable outcomes, culturally relevant books that hook kids into reading, and community involvement to support reading and beyond.

Rosalia joined the Cozy Club and was hooked. She even started a lunchtime book club with friends in J3. “She went from ‘I can’t read’ to leading her own book club,” her J3 reading coach shares. “The girls in the book club are taking turns reading aloud to one another, helping each other to carefully sound the words out during their lunch break. That’s the power of reaching kids at the right moment.”

And J3 knows exactly when that pivotal moment is and it’s what sets J3 Foundation’s individually informed reading program apart. “Fourth grade is where futures are decided,” says Blackstone. His co-founder, Jamie Mohn, adds, “We deliver the urgent help they need to stay in school and out of the justice system.”  

J3 Foundation grabs kids off that precipice and opens the door to a lifetime of learning, reading, and opportunity. And their model is working.  

In just one school year, J3 students saw an average of a 36-point improvement in their reading scores, while in 2022 the national average fourth grade reading score decreased by three points (compared to 2019).

The proof is in the numbers but, more importantly, the proof is in the successful stories of new and proud readers, like Rosalia, and the hundreds more that J3 helps every year in schools across marginalized neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Readers, who, thanks to J3 Foundation, will have a whole life of opportunity ahead of them.