TAYLORSVILLE, Utah — Kids sitting in front of screens, navigating the World Wide Web with the ease of someone more than quadruple their age. But imagine, they’re not just playing any game or TikTokking: they’re learning to read.
“It feels like a game, so it feels like they’re playing, and it is engaging,” says parent Brooke Hussey. “It is easy for them to use and it’s fun.”
Rosie and Rusty racoon are the stars and teachers of Upstart, a cute cartoon for pre-kindergarteners wanting to get a handle on reading skills outside of the classroom.
It’s use for any 4-year-old is funded by the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity. It’s free for any family who wants to give their future student a leg up or a healthy head start.
Hussey’s 4-year-old daughter Indy, is just getting familiar with Upstart. Her oldest daughter, you can say, has “graduated” from the program. “With her, we really had to work on reading,” says Hussey. “She is reading now, and she’s thriving in school, but we really had to put in a lot of extra work. I was so grateful that I had Upstart for her because it’s hard as a parent to teach your kid to read.”
That’s what the Taylorsville nonprofit Waterford understands: that building ready readers takes a village.
Waterford is where Upstart began in Utah decades ago.
“It’s fun to watch parents teach their children with their initial setup,” says Gretchen Willard, communications manager for Waterford. “We also have coaches that can support parents, and we have a lot of resources that parents can print from our online resources. It’s not just on the screen; you print things, you color your way together, and take it outside. We want this to be an immersive experience.”
In 2023, only 48 percent of Utah third graders were reading at grade level. 2022’s legislative session produced Senate Bill 127, which aims to have 70 percent of third graders reading at grade level by 2027 – that’s in just two years.
“The goal is that Ogden will no longer have the lowest incoming kindergarten readiness data,” says Sarah Reader, executive director for instructional leadership for the Ogden school district. “That’s been a long-time goal for us, to increase that readiness and not be in the bottom five of kindergarten readiness.”
Reader says the last two years the district has done concerted outreach to raise awareness about the free program. The district’s makeup is a majority minority students; more than 30 percent of its pupils come from homes where English is not the primary language.
“Our schools that have families that use Upstart most definitely do show data that is distinct from those that do not,” says Reader. “Last year was a big year for us though and we had almost 190 students that we had sign up for Upstart from the Ogden school district area.”
Take it from Brooke and Indy. It’s as easy as logging your child in and leaving them to learn at their own pace while having some fun. “Half of it is if they’re struggling, they don’t have that confidence, then it’s going to be harder for them to continue to thrive,” says Hussey. “I want my girls to love reading and I want them to feel confident in it.”
If you’d like to register your child for Upstart, click here.
