The Center for Creative Education has designed and opened The Foundations School, a K-3 school for children in our Northwood, FL, 33407 neighborhood. Less than 33% of the students in the five elementary schools around us read on grade level by the end of third grade! This is a local and a national crisis as only about 35% read proficiently by fourth grade nationally (NAEP). Early illiteracy can lead to early dropouts. Illiteracy not only harms students’ success in school but also damages individual hopes for the future and contributes to intergenerational poverty.

CCE’s Innovative Response

CCE wants to disrupt this literacy crisis through the use of creative strategies because our mission is to transform teaching and learning through creativity and the arts. Therefore, one of the school’s most important instructional strategies is to use creativity to engage students and increase their achievement.

References: National Assessment of Educational Progress, NAEP. (2019). https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/nation/achievement/?grade=4