Marietta City Schools partners with UGA for expanded literacy initiative

MARIETTA, Ga. — Marietta City Schools announced the launch of an expanded literacy program in partnership with the University of Georgia.

According to district officials the “Writing the Book on Literacy: The Next Chapter” program will focus on literacy for Marietta middle schoolers.

“This extension of our proven elementary strategies, in partnership with UGA’s Mary Frances Early College of Education, aims to equip middle schoolers with the literacy skills they need for high school and beyond,” the district said.

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The program itself will be supported by a $1.1 million investment.

In a release on the program launch, school officials said the initiative would be expanding the “successful Science of Reading-based approach” to middle-grade reading and is expected to add “comprehensive training, coaching and instructional resources to educators at Marietta Sixth Grade Academy and Marietta Middle School.”

The program will also build on the district’s previous success in 2023, where the third-grade reading scores for the Georgia Milestones were five times higher than the state average and the metro Atlanta area average, according to officials.

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“Marietta has been recognized as a s state leader in elementary literacy and we look forward to expanding that success to middle grades,” Marietta School Superintendent Grant Rivera said. “We will integrate research-based literacy strategies across every middle-grades classroom in our school district, fundamentally changing how these students learn to read and write in Marietta.”

The literacy initiative for elementary school students in MCS was already undertaken in partnership with UGA’s Mary Frances College of Education, led by Dr. Sally Zepeda, a national expert.

With the expanded program, the UGA team will conduct focus groups and perform data analysis to help the school district refine strategies and improve outcomes over the next two years, school officials said.

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