Tag: reading

Houston Matters

Read to Me: Children’s Book Teaches Parents the Value of Reading to Their Kids

Posted on · More than 25 years ago, the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy was founded to help promote family reading and learning. One of the ways the foundation is hoping to achieve that this year, in conjunction with the McNair Foundation, is by giving away a thousand free books to promote literacy for at-risk children. The book that […]

Houston Matters

How Buying a New Cell Phone Cover Helps a Girl Learn to Read

Posted on · How does buying a fashionable new cell phone case help a girl in a developing country learn to read? A Houston company called Mrked makes fashionable cell phone cases and shares its profits with Room to Read, an organization that helps provide education for girls in Asian and African countries. We’ll hear from one of the […]

Houston Matters

Houston Non-Profit Works to Address ‘Book Famine’ in Malawi

Posted on · A Houston-based non-profit called the Good Steward Global Initiative is working to build libraries in areas of the African nation of Malawi experiencing what the initiative calls “book famines.” This effort comes on the heels of recent devastating floods displacing hundreds of thousands in the country. While we all tend to respond to damage caused […]

Houston Matters

Study Indicates Teacher Training Important for Quality Pre-K

Posted on · A Houston-based nonprofit education program recently published a year-long study looking at an early literacy teacher training program. Neuhaus Education Center’s project focused on workshops for HISD teachers in order to improve classroom instruction. Marybeth Flachbart, President & CEO of Neuhaus Education Center, tells us more about what the study says regarding the importance of training […]

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State of the Union and Early Literacy: Houston Matters for Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015

Posted on · President Obama delivered his sixth State of the Union address Tuesday night. He covered a wide range of issues, many of which are especially relevant to Houston and Texas. As a new, Republican-controlled Congress looked on, the President reiterated veto threats should Congress “put the security of families at risk by taking away their health insurance…or […]

Houston Matters

Study: Reading from a Printed Page Helps You Remember More than Reading from a Screen

Posted on · In this digital age of ours, some of us will roll our eyes a bit when we see someone print out an article they can just as easily read on their computer or tablet or smart phone. Turns out — at least according to a recent University of Houston study — they might be onto something. It […]

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Ride Sharing Revisited, Parking, and Texas Highways: Houston Matters for Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Posted on · After a public hearing Tuesday, the Houston City Council may well vote on a vehicle-for-hire ordinance change that would allow for ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft. That vote was initially to take place last month, but was delayed in the hopes that there might be consensus among stakeholders, including ride-sharing services and local cab […]

Houston Matters

Improving Literacy in Houston

Posted on · According to a report from the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, roughly 330,000 Houstonians are functionally illiterate. While some 60 percent of Houston’s kids lack requisite reading-readiness skills upon entering kindergarten. And only 20 percent of third graders performed at an advanced level on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) reading exam. Since September of last […]

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HIV/AIDS Research and Testing, Literacy, and Oveta Culp Hobby: Houston Matters for Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Posted on · National HIV Testing Day is this Friday, and the Texas Department of State Health Services is hosting an HIV/STD Conference later this summer in Austin. The city of Houston is partnering with AIDS Foundation Houston to test 15,000 Houstonians for HIV this summer. About 27,000 Houstonians are HIV positive, and thousands more are believed to […]