Two years into Literacy for All Students, we are starting to see what consistency can do for our students in Kansas City classrooms.
LFAS launched in nine schools in 2024–2025. This year, twelve schools are part of the work, spanning district and charter systems, and every one of them now has a Literacy Coach in the building. The initiative grows to fifteen by August 2026.
The story this year is one of momentum. Not every school is moving at the same pace, and we expected that. But across Cohort 1, more children are reading closer to where we want them to be, and the schools furthest along are showing what the model can do when it has time to take root, with all supports in place.
More Kids Are Reading Better
Across Cohort 1 schools, 6 percentage points more students are now performing above the national median on formative assessments than last fall. Fewer kids are sitting in the lowest quartile. More are reaching the top.
When you follow the same group of students from Grade 2 last year into Grade 3 this year, the picture gets even clearer. The bottom quartile shrank from 50.3% to 43.7%. The top quartile grew from 12.8% to 15.3%. Same kids, one more year of strong resources and instruction, real movement.
Five of the nine Cohort 1 schools improved year over year on third-grade MAP ELA:
- Banneker (+5.8)
- Academy for Integrated Arts (+4.2)
- Whittier (+2.8)
- Border Star (+2.1)
- Ingels (+0.9)
That progress is happening in a year when third-grade scores declined across Kansas City overall. LFAS schools held the line and then some, with more students moving into Basic and Proficient than their peers in non-participating schools.
Cohort 2 Is Just Getting Started
The three schools in Cohort 2 just took their baseline. Right now, 37.6% of those students rank in the top half nationally. We will measure everything that comes next against that line.
Winter 2026 results dipped slightly across both cohorts, as we expected. The mid-year diagnostics include skills students have not yet been taught, so the dip is a sign that kids are being measured against an end-of-year bar. Encouragingly, our youngest readers, especially in kindergarten, are tracking right alongside their national peers.
Coaches Are in Every Building
Year one was about laying the foundation. This year, the model is fully up and running.
Every partner school has an embedded Literacy Coach working shoulder to shoulder with teachers, every day. And teachers are feeling the difference. 77% report being satisfied with their coach, and mid-year feedback from our partners at the University of Missouri–Kansas City indicates stronger tutoring systems, better instructional practice, and clearer alignment with literacy standards across the board.
Just as importantly, the people leading this work in the buildings, day-to-day – providers, LEA leaders, across the ecosystem, are pulling in the same direction more than ever. In a city where nearly one in three students changes schools during the year, that kind of alignment is what keeps our youth from losing ground when their address changes.
What Year One Taught Us About Literacy
We learned a lot in the first year, and we used those learnings to strengthen year two.
Results were uneven across schools, so we expanded coaching and tightened alignment across providers and LEA leadership.
Most schools did not have a Literacy Coach in year one, cohort 1, so we raised starting salaries and recruited more aggressively to ensure every school had one starting this fall. This was the result of having funding for cohort 1 formalized well after contracts for the new school year and been signed, typically by March, annually. We received our formal funding in early July.
Two schools underwent leadership changes, and we provided extra support to those newer principals. And when school leaders told us their biggest barriers were time and alignment, we built a joint summer professional development experience for principals and coaches so they start each year as an aligned team.
What’s Ahead for Literary for All Students
The next stretch of work is about turning early signs into lasting gains. That means deeper principal onboarding, summer learning for coaches and leaders, stronger alignment across the city, sustainability planning with our Cohort 1 and Cohort 2 partners, and welcoming Cohort 3 into the fold.
Our partners at UMKC will release their full end-of-year evaluation by July, 2026, with additional formative data, focus group findings, and survey results.
This Is What SchoolSmartKC Is Built For
LFAS is the kind of work that defines what we do. We bring families, schools,educators, community and funders together around strategies that move progress forward side-by-side with our students, and we stay in it long enough to see the results.
Kansas City set a goal to reach 33% in third-grade reading proficiency by 2028. We are not there yet, but two years in, we can see the path. It runs through every classroom where a coach is helping a teacher get better, every tutoring session where a kid finally cracks the code, every principal making space for this work even when their week is already full.
We are proud of the schools, teachers, coaches, and families making this happen. And we thank the investors, partners, and Kansas Citians who believe that when community leads, student success follows.
If you want to be part of what comes next, we’d love to have you with us.
