Literacy Mid-South gets $4.5 million grant to support local students

By Aarron Fleming, Daily Memphian

Literacy Mid-South has been selected to receive a $4.5 million grant from the Tennessee Department of Education to support Memphis-Shelby County Schools students and students attending public area charter schools.

The grant is the largest in the organization’s history and will be used to provide 3,000 1st-5th grade students with free, in-school literacy tutoring.

“We are grateful to the Tennessee Department of Education for this unprecedented support of Literacy Mid-South’s work,” Dr. Chandra Alston, incoming Board Chair of LMS, said in a press release. “On behalf of our staff and board, we are thrilled to be named one of five organizations selected to receive a TN ALL Corps grant based on our proven history bringing literacy resources, services and collaborative partnerships to the Memphis community.”

Literacy Mid-South was selected by the Department of Education as one of five community-based organizations from across the state to receive a grant under the Tennessee Accelerating Literacy and Learning Corps program.

The TN ALL Corps is a statewide initiative aimed at providing students access to quality tutoring in both English Language Arts and math.

The education department is investing $170.5 million into the program and has 83 districts participating.

The five organizations selected for grant funding will provide tutoring services to up to 18,000 students across the state.

Tutoring will be provided in a high-dosage, low-ratio format, with students working in small groups with a 1:3 tutor to student ratio, and student groups will meet three times per week for 45 minutes per session, Literacy Mid-South said.

The grant award comes at a critical time for student literacy in Memphis.

The most recent TCAP numbers from the state, which were released June 15, suggest that only 36.4% of students in the state are meeting grade-level expectations in English Language Arts.

Students with disabilities, English learners, Black students and students who are economically disadvantaged had the lowest percentages meeting grade-level expectations compared to other student groups.

“This funding is coming at a pivotal time for our community and our organization,” said Sam O’Bryant, executive director of Literacy Mid-South. “As we near our 50th year providing literacy services to the Mid-South, this infusion of funds from TDOE is catalyzing our efforts to ensure Shelby County students receive the critical literacy skills necessary for them to achieve success.”

District-level data is set to be released next month and Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray appeared hopeful about what the data shows for the district when he addressed the media in a video call after the state-level data was released.

“I am cautiously optimistic about what we have seen so far,” he said.

Created in 1974, Literacy Mid-South has been providing literacy services to both children and adults in Memphis for almost 50 years.

Some of its recent initiatives include Read Memphis, a program aimed at certifying nonprofits, churches and government agencies to provide literacy education, and Read 901, which focuses on helping K-3 students improve their literacy and reading comprehension levels, according to the LMS website.

As part of receiving the grant, Literacy Mid-South is responsible for recruiting and hiring tutors, working with school districts to select students for whom they will provide services and designing the overall tutoring program that they will use. 

Literacy Mid-South will hire 45-90 tutors per semester and each will receive $25 an hour. The organization will also be hiring five tutor support managers and a program director.

Those interested in the manager and director positions can visit www.literacymidsouth.org/about/job-openings/. More information about the tutor positions will be available soon.