Contact: Stephanie Agresti, sagresti@scholastic.com, 212-343-7819

New York, NY – March 12, 2018 – Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education and media company, today announced an expanded suite of resources that support striving readers—students who are reading six to 24 months below grade level, as well as young children who have come to school in Kindergarten or first grade not having been exposed to preschool or the pre-K learning of literacy concepts. The newest addition to this suite of resources is Scholastic Edge™, an intervention program incorporating leveled books and targeted instructional strategies for teachers to better support striving readers in grades K–6 while keeping them in the classroom.

To learn more about the research-based comprehensive literacy solutions from Scholastic that support striving readers, visit: scholastic.com/strivingreaders.

Scholastic resources to support striving readers include:

• Scholastic Edge™ is designed to motivate students reading at Guided Reading levels Pre-A–V, through successful reading experiences and related tasks that accelerate progress. The program has an extensive list of fiction and nonfiction titles that do not overlap with other Scholastic Guided Reading programs, and foster an inclusive approach that scaffolds instruction to support striving readers and English language learners in small-group settings.
• Professional Learning services from Scholastic Education offer a pathway designed to build teachers’ expertise in supporting striving readers by utilizing EDGE. Educators will learn how to identify striving readers and adapt small-group instruction to address the diverse needs of their students.
• From Striving to Thriving: How to Grow Confident, Capable Readers (Grades K–8) is a professional book by literacy specialists Stephanie Harvey and Annie Ward that guides educators in how to effectively assess and support striving readers with personalized instruction that enables them to find books that they love, and to engage in voluminous reading.
• Scholastic Action® (Grades 6–12, reading levels 3–5) is a classroom magazine that helps to raise the reading achievement of striving readers with engaging and accessible multi-genre texts and activities at their interest and reading levels.
• Leveled Bookroom 4.0 (Grades K–6) provides schools with a complete collection of more than 6,000 leveled, high-quality, authentic fiction and nonfiction texts for whole-school learning, as well as print and digital instructional materials to support educators.
• My Books Summer/My Books Every Day (Grades pre-K–12) increase access to fiction and nonfiction books in the home through customizable book packs for children to keep, along with reading journals and think sheets that encourage students to engage in reading all year long.
• LitCamp™ (Grades K–8) is a summer program that combines innovative, research-based reading and writing lessons with an engaging and interactive summer camp approach to mitigate the effects of the summer slide, the common loss of academic skills while students are not in school.
• Traits Writing™ (Grades K–8) is a full-year curriculum that helps to build students’ literacy skills with writing workshops and mentor texts.
• Dr. Karen Mapp’s Family Engagement Workshop Series (Grades pre-K–12) is a hands-on, interactive program designed to inspire educators to form powerful learning partnerships with families, which will enhance student performance and enable systemic school advancement.
• Engaging Families in Children’s Literacy Development (Grades pre-K–K) outlines a series of five 90-minute literacy workshops containing videos, hands-on activities and a facilitator’s guide with step-by-step support for encouraging families to begin early literacy development at home.
• Scholastic Book Clubs and Book Fairs empower students and their families to choose books they will love to read with high-quality, high-interest, diverse and authentic texts available for all age ranges and reading levels.

“To truly engage all of our students in reading, it is essential that we provide them with access to authentic, age-appropriate texts at their interest and reading levels as well as the tools to succeed in reading them,” says Adria Klein, Ph.D., EDGE author and Program Director and Trainer of the Early Intervention Center at Saint Mary's College of California. “Striving readers need targeted support to grow their literacy skills along with increased opportunities to engage with books, and educators need resources that are effective in balanced literacy classrooms to help their striving readers find those books that inspire a love of reading.”

Michael Haggen, Chief Academic Officer, Scholastic Education, adds, “Educators care deeply about helping all of their students discover a sincere passion for reading, but that journey of discovery and learning is different for every child. Scholastic resources are designed to help educators develop confident, lifelong readers through authentic texts that kids will enjoy and targeted, differentiated instruction that carves a clear pathway for guiding all students, especially those who are striving.”

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A 2017 EdWeek Market Brief survey of teachers and district leaders ranked Scholastic highest among four major educational companies, with 85% expressing positive sentiments about Scholastic. For more information about Scholastic, visit the Company’s media room: //mediaroom.scholastic.com.