In the lead-up to the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Final Four, while student-athletes were practicing their skills on the court, younger students in both host cities were practicing their reading skills. The NCAA’s Read to the Final Four literacy program created bracket-style reading challenges for third-grade students in San Antonio and Tampa. The bracket champions read more minutes than any other school.
According to the NCAA, the challenges tipped off months ago. In San Antonio, 26,000 students from 306 schools participated and logged reading minutes to be one of the 68 schools to qualify for the bracket. Students in San Antonio logged more than 27 million minutes of reading, and in Tampa, 91,000 students logged over 6 million minutes of reading during the challenge.
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W.Z. “Doc” Burke Elementary was the champion from San Antonio, logging 1.8 million minutes and earning a $5,000 grant for the school library.
The victor in Tampa was Limona Elementary, which completed 22,753 minutes in the fourth quarter alone. “It was honored alongside fellow top-performing schools: Shore, Anderson, Morgan Woods, Sullivan, Seffner, Lincoln, Lopez, Mintz, Fishhawk Creek, Ruskin, McDonald, Graham and Witter,” said the statement from the NCAA. “The top 14 schools received $1,000 for their efforts.”
Read to the Final Four first launched in 2016, and is one of several NCAA literacy programs throughout the school year.
Felicia Martin, NCAA senior vice president said, “Reading is an important life skill for young children to learn early. Third grade reading proficiency is a critical milestone in students' education. I want to extend a special thank you to teachers, librarians, administrators and parents for their commitment and active involvement in collaborating and facilitating the success of Read to the Final Four. It's been incredible to witness Tampa Bay and Hillsborough County commit time and space to add this enhancement as a part of their literacy goals. And it's been so much fun to see students embrace this challenge as they've competed throughout Read to the Final Four."
