Chattanooga literacy initiatives
Literacy Programs
Literacy is a powerful foundation for change in a community.
Literacy partners
Helping urban students excel
Kingdom Partners is working with schools, non-profits and faith communities to help urban students get the literacy tools they need to excel now and in the future.
21st Century Community Learning Centers provide students with opportunities for academic enrichment, youth development and family support during non-school hours. The overarching goal of the 21st CCLC program is to provide students—particularly students who attend schools in need of improvement—with academic enrichment opportunities and support services to help them meet state and local standards in the core content areas.
Kingdom Partners will be applying for two 21st Century Community Learning Center Grants to expand literacy in our community. Learn about two of our Learning Centers, at Battle Academy and Brown Academy.
Battle Academy
Dr. Joyce Hardaway
Executive Director
Madysen McEntire
1st Grade
Joscyln Shabazz
Site Coordinator
Gabby Stoneking
1st Grade
Reanee Jackson
2nd Grade
Adams Diomande
4th Grade
Ruth Auls
4th Grade
Tabi Upton
5th Grade
Sam Patton
Music
Terry Hanner
Martial Arts
Charlie Newton
Art
Kendall Davis, Susan Spurgeon
Office Support / Teacher Assistance
Brown Academy
The Brown Academy Literacy Program has entered into its second year at Brown Academy with sixteen of the seventeen First Centenary United Methodist Church cohort of volunteers returning; thirteen as full-time tutors and three as subs if the tutors need to be absent. As was the case in 2023-2024, each tutor works with either four kindergarteners or first-graders twice a week for a total of about one-half hour of individual instruction each week per student. Tutors receive specific instructions from the students’ teachers with reference to the level of instruction needed for each student.
The volunteer tutors from First Centenary who have contributed so significantly to the education of Brown Academy kindergartners and first graders for the past two years are: Mandy Coley, Helen Collins, Melinda Craft, Annabell Harr, Jennifer McDaniel, Marla McDaniel, Eric Rodgers, Mike Sayne, Mary Sieger, Rick Sieger, Lee Stout and Lydia Weathersby. Laura Ashline, Nicola Crisp and Patsi Walker have served as subs.
The teachers have reported that the students in the program are responding very well to the attention they get from the tutors and that their improved attitudes are contagious. Academic growth is measured by I-Ready tests given to kindergartners and Benchmark tests administered to first graders, and a statistical analysis will be completed at the end of the year to determine whether expectations were met.
The principal and teachers view this program as an important supplement to the children’s instruction.
Dr. Dan Baker
First Centenary UMC · Daytime Literacy Program · bakerde@epbfi.com
Retired Professor of Educational Administration and Supervision after thirty-one years at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he served as Director of Student Teaching and of the Governor’s School for Prospective Teachers. Former President and Executive Secretary of the Tennessee Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Program leader for Beyond the Bars, a re-entry program sponsored by First Centenary UMC, lay minister for FCUMC, and coordinator of the FCUMC Literacy Program, a tutoring initiative for kindergartners and first-graders.