Teaching Matters, a New York City-based nonprofit dedicated to increasing teacher effectiveness, has announced a three-year, $3.6 million grant from the New York Community Trust to expand its Early Reading Matters program and develop a data tool that will monitor students' progress toward grade-level reading.

With the funding, the organization will expand the program — which currently is running in thirty-two high-need elementary schools, twenty-eight of which are in the Bronx — to a total of sixty-two schools by 2021. According to Teaching Matters, there has been a 50 percent increase in the number of students reading at grade level by the end of second grade in schools where the program is in place.

The grant also will support a partnership between Teaching Matters and New Visions for Public Schools focused on developing an early literacy data tool that can be used to assess improvement in students' reading proficiency and bolster teachers' ability to use research-based reading instruction.

"This significant investment to scale Teaching Matters' approach to improve reading instruction in K-3 helps ensure quality teaching for all children, no matter their ZIP code,” said Teaching Matters CEO Lynette Guastaferro.