Racine Sun

Wisconsin has decided to provide additional funding for education nonprofits to help address issues of equity and access that have recently contributed to the achievement gap caused by some students’ lack of access to remote learning resources.

Nonprofit programs are showing promise at getting students back up to speed, such as Waterford’s UPSTART program.

"The UPSTART Program also provides a social-emotional learning model for the family. Social and emotional learning is critically important to the early childhood level. Within the first 11 weeks of school, roughly 71% of our students were at mastery with their early reading skills based on age, so that alone was amazing to see," Amy Shepherd said.

UPSTART’s parent nonprofit, Waterford, is a literacy-focused organization that is implementing their program in six school districts throughout Wisconsin, which is meant to help students with their academic, social-emotional and access issues.

Dr. Eric Gallien, superintendent of Racine Unified School District, shared his pride for the RUSD Class of 2021 and all that they have accomplished despite a challenging year. 

UPSTART is being offered free-of-charge to low-income families with four-year-old children. Families who qualify for the program will also receive a computer and internet access for free if they register in time.