Building the Foundation for Success: Learn4Life’s Systems Approach to Early Literacy

The Challenge: Early Literacy in Metro Atlanta

Reading proficiency by the end of third grade is one of the strongest indicators of lifelong success. Students who meet this milestone are more likely to graduate from high school, pursue postsecondary education and access well-paying jobs. Yet across Georgia, too many children are falling behind. According to Georgia Reads, 62% of third graders, 68% of fourth graders and 69% of eighth graders are not proficient in reading.

Across Metro Atlanta’s five counties and eight school districts, which serve nearly 600,000 K–12 students, reading outcomes remain uneven, with deep disparities for students of color and students from low-income families. Many children enter kindergarten already behind in language development and without coordinated systems of support, those early gaps grow wider each year. Inconsistent access to quality early learning, teacher training and family engagement compounds the problem, particularly in communities that have long been under-resourced.

Low literacy is both an education and an economic issue. According to The State of Literacy in Georgia (Deloitte, 2023), nearly 800,000 Georgia adults have low literacy skills, making them 1.9 times more likely to be unemployed and reducing their lifetime earnings by about $1 million. More than half work in industries most vulnerable to automation, while children of low-literacy parents face a 72% chance of remaining at the lowest reading levels themselves. Literacy is an issue that shapes workforce readiness and regional prosperity.

Recognizing that no single district or program could reverse these trends alone, local leaders formed Learn4Life, a place-based partnership and member of the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network. The partnership brings together education, business, philanthropic and community partners to align systems, build civic infrastructure and the connections needed for lasting change to ensure that every child in Metro Atlanta can read proficiently by third grade, a milestone that opens doors to economic mobility.

A Place-Based Partnership Driving Change

Learn4Life was created to transform how systems work together to improve outcomes for every child in Metro Atlanta. The partnership connects schools, early learning providers, health systems and community organizations around shared goals in early grade literacy, eighth-grade math and postsecondary success. By aligning data, resources and proven strategies, Learn4Life helps local leaders identify what works and expand it regionwide.

“Our role is to align what’s already working and help it grow,” says Dr. Rebecca Parshall, Learn4Life’s director of strategy and development. “Metro Atlanta is full of bright spots. The power of a place-based partnership is bringing those successes together at scale.”

Since 2017, Learn4Life has served as a regional backbone partner, helping schools, communities and organizations use data and shared learning to improve results for children and families. Rather than creating new programs, the team identifies local strategies that are already working and helps expand them across the region. This approach builds a regional framework for collaboration, where partners align around common goals and take collective action to achieve them.

Strategy and Impact: Scaling What Works

Literacy and Justice for All

Launched in 2021, Literacy and Justice for All (LJFA) represents Learn4Life’s approach to identifying and scaling what works. Built on The Cox Campus, the Atlanta Speech School’s free professional learning platform grounded in the science of reading, LJFA connects early learning centers, birthing hospitals, K–5 classrooms and community organizations to create an early literacy ecosystem.

The initiative reflects the understanding that literacy begins long before kindergarten and depends on coordination among every system that shapes a child’s life. Supported by grants from the Whitehead Foundation and the United Way of Greater Atlanta and guided by national experts in reading science and child development, LJFA is anchored in evidence-based practices that reach children where they learn, live and grow.

LJFA’s pilot district, Marietta City Schools, shows what effective implementation looks like. All certified teachers completed professional learning through Cox Campus, supported by coaching from the Rollins Center for Language and Literacy at the Atlanta Speech School, along with structured literacy materials and family engagement. Between 2022 and 2025, Marietta’s average English Language Arts scores rose by 11 points, five times the growth of both the state and metro averages. Third grade English Language Arts scores climbed by 17 points and the share of students reading at or above grade level increased by 8%. Gains were strongest (as measured by ELA Mean Scale Scores) among Black students, English learners, and students with disabilities.

“Policy without strong implementation support doesn’t really mean anything,” says Dr. Parshall. “You can pass a law, but without the capacity and resources to make it real in classrooms, it won’t change outcomes for kids.”

That emphasis on implementation positioned LJFA as a model for Georgia’s 2023 House Bill 538, now part of the Georgia Early Literacy and Dyslexia Act (HB 307). The legislation’s focus on evidence-based training, coaching and instructional materials reflects what Learn4Life and its partners had already proven could work. LJFA is now expanding into additional districts, serving as a blueprint for how to build literacy systems that last.

The Atlanta Vision Project

As Learn4Life advanced literacy outcomes through LJFA, its data revealed another key barrier to reading success: vision access. Research shows that 80% of learning in a child’s first 12 years comes through vision, yet tens of thousands of Metro Atlanta students struggle to read because they can’t see the page. Learn4Life estimates that nearly 47,000 elementary students across the region need glasses but don’t have them.

To close this gap, Learn4Life launched the Atlanta Vision Project, a regional collaboration with three mobile vision providers and multiple school districts. The project aims to provide 165,000 screenings, 58,000 eye exams and 47,000 pairs of glasses by 2028, ensuring that every child who needs glasses receives them at no cost.

Since 2017, Vision To Learn, a Bright Spot partner of Learn4Life, has provided eye exams and pairs of glasses to Georgia students. In the past eight years, Vision To Learn has provided more than 50,000 pairs of glasses to children in metro Atlanta. Each pair helps a child see clearly and learn confidently, with measurable academic benefits equivalent to two to four months of instruction time.

To sustain this work, Learn4Life became the first non-district organization approved under Georgia’s Peach Education Tax Credit, allowing individuals and corporations to direct tax dollars to the Atlanta Vision Project for children’s vision care. “Access to vision care shouldn’t be left to chance or charity,” Dr. Parshall says. “Our goal is to prove what’s possible, then make it part of our public infrastructure.”

Learning Together Across the Network

Learn4Life’s success in Metro Atlanta is supported by its connection to the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network. Through this network, Learn4Life exchanges data, tools and proven practices with peers across the country, gaining insight into how other communities scale what works. One of the most valuable resources in this shared ecosystem is the StriveTogether Training Hub, an online learning platform that offers on-demand courses, tools and coaching for network members. The Hub helps partnerships like Learn4Life build capacity in results-based leadership, data use and continuous improvement, skills that directly strengthen Metro Atlanta’s civic infrastructure.

“The network effects are real,” says Parshall. “We’ve learned so much from other communities about how to scale what works and how to stay focused on what’s measurable and sustainable.” This shared learning culture has shaped key elements of Learn4Life’s approach, from identifying local bright spots to strengthening continuous improvement systems that keep partners focused on results.

By engaging with peers across the Cradle to Career Network, Learn4Life both deepens its own impact and contributes lessons back to the field. Each cycle of learning reinforces what’s possible when partnerships move beyond individual programs to create shared systems change.

Building Systems for Long-Term Literacy Success

As Literacy and Justice for All expands beyond its pilot phase, Learn4Life is deepening implementation across Metro Atlanta by focusing on educator training and community alignment. The partnership continues to scale science of reading professional learning and coaching cycles in new districts, ensuring every teacher has the evidence-based tools that have been transforming Marietta City Schools. Through collaborations with the Rollins Center for Language and Literacy and The Cox Campus, Learn4Life helps districts adopt structured literacy materials, universal screeners and ongoing coaching, the full system of support needed for lasting change.

Beyond the classroom, Learn4Life is mobilizing a broader literacy network that includes early learning providers, nonprofits and families. It’s microcredential program with Kennesaw State University gives nonprofit staff and volunteers access to free, accredited training in the science of reading. “We started training nonprofit staff and volunteers who work with kids in language and literacy to make sure that what they were doing complements what’s happening in classrooms,” says Parshall. “It was our way of filling a gap, bringing community organizations into the literacy ecosystem.”

Learn4Life is also advancing long-term strategies that sustain progress over time. Its teacher retention initiative, developed with metro Atlanta school districts and the Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI), has reduced turnover by more than 50% in participating schools by improving principal well-being and school culture.

Learn4Life’s work shows that improving early literacy means transforming the systems that support children and families. By aligning schools, early learning centers, health providers and community organizations, the partnership is creating the conditions every child needs to succeed. The progress in Metro Atlanta reflects more than improved reading outcomes. It represents a lasting shift toward systems that sustain opportunity and mobility from cradle to career.