PBS KIDS Raising Readers, the 2005-2010 national initiative, was founded in an effort to close the literacy achievement gap and promote Kindergarten readiness for America’s children, especially those living in poverty. Through this initiative, children ages 2 to 8 received research-based literacy content on various media platforms and teachers were provided with resources and training to support students’ learning.

This study tested the impact of PBS KIDS Raising Readers content on children and teachers in 80 preschool classrooms with 398 children from low-income families. The study found that participating preschoolers outscored their peers who did not participate in the curriculum on all tested measures of early literacy.

PBS KIDS Raising Readers has supported significant literacy growth for at-risk children through television, online and mobile content, partnerships and community engagement activities, and teacher training.

Popular content includes:

Between the Lions

Super Why!

Sesame Street

Word World

The Electric Company

Martha Speaks

PBS KIDS Raising Readers was funded by the Ready to Learn grant from the US Department of Education and led in partnership with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS.