Dear friend of GLEN World,
The challenges posed by these Covid-19 years have inspired us at GLEN World to work harder than ever to help children take their first steps towards literacy and school readiness. With spring in full swing, and the pandemic hopefully entering its final phase, we are taking a moment to reflect on what we have accomplished, and the huge tasks that lie ahead. As our work reaches more children all over the world, we are expanding our network of friends and supporters and establishing a regular schedule for communication. This might be the first time you are hearing from us, but we plan to stay in touch.
Here are some highlights from the past 18 months:
- We released the GLEN Learn mobile app on both Android and iOS platforms. Our mobile app enables offline learning and is our contribution toward chipping away at the digital divide for children who are just starting on their learning journey. The GLEN Learn app is free, ad-free, and there are no in-app purchases.
- We released our learner analytics dashboard to help teachers and administrators get meaningful insights into their students’ learning progress. The dashboard provides actionable recommendations to teachers to help each child stay engaged and get the most out of GLEN Learn.
- Thanks to a Google Ads grant that we obtained last year, our content now truly has a global reach, with about 25,000 learners using our content in far-flung corners of the world: in Indonesia, India, Philippines, Vietnam, South Africa, Brazil, and many other countries. Most of our learners started with the web version of our content before we released the GLEN Learn mobile app, so we expect these numbers to grow as our mobile apps gain visibility and traction.
- Here in our home base of Santa Barbara, California, we have been laser-focused on helping English Learners in our community get ready for school. The GLEN Learn app is now aligned with school readiness standards used to gauge children’s readiness levels as they enter kindergarten in California. In September 2021, we kicked off a pilot in a Transitional Kindergarten classroom in the Lompoc Unified School District (LUSD) in Santa Barbara County. The LUSD deployment builds on our prior pilot in 2020 with the Isla Vista Youth Projects (IVYP) in Goleta
- Exciting news from the LUSD pilot: the English Learners in the classroom are among the most engaged with GLEN Learn! Our learner analytics dashboard allows us to witness children learning from our content “as it happens,” and we are thrilled to see their progress. We are grateful to LUSD students, teachers, and administrators for their collaboration and feedback!
- In mid-2021, we welcomed Donna Barranco Fisher and Prof. Mike Furlong to our board. Both Donna and Mike have deep domain expertise and experience to help us refine and execute our strategic plan. Donna has decades of experience as a non-profit leader in early childhood education, serving in both executive and board roles. Most recently, she was Executive Director of the Storyteller Children’s Center in Santa Barbara. Mike’s research career at UC Santa Barbara has focused heavily on children’s socio-emotional development. He co-created KSEP (Kindergarten Student Entrance Profile), a school readiness assessment extensively employed in California schools.
What next?
As you can see, we have been busy, but our work is only getting started. We are constantly working on improving and expanding the GLEN Learn app. The feedback that we continue to receive from our young learners and partners at LUSD is playing a vital role in our progress. We are planning to build partnerships with schools and community organizations to help get our content to the children who need it most. And of course, we are working on evolving GLEN World into a mature organization that can be a strong partner in the coalitions we must build to help every child get to school ready to learn.
To our supporters, donors, and partners: our sincere gratitude to you for your steadfast support through the years. THANK YOU from all of us at GLEN World and the children we serve!
We remain committed to rising to the unprecedented challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Would you consider making a gift to help young English Learners in our communities? Donate now.
The GLEN World Team
GLEN World is a 501(c)3 nonprofit. If your employer has a donation match program, then that’s a great way to double your gift’s impact!
GLEN World and Amazon Smile: When you shop at smile.amazon.com/ch/46-1575387, AmazonSmile donates to GLEN World!