Ignite Reading’s Jessica Reid Sliwerski on closing the first-grade literacy gap with daily 1:1 virtual tutoring — and why AI should elevate, not replace, the human connection.
INTERVIEW | by Victor Rivero
In a first-grade classroom in East Oakland, Jessica Reid Sliwerski watched six-year-olds unlock the code of written language — sounding out letters, blending syllables, discovering the quiet thrill of reading a sentence on their own. Literacy proficiency at the school hovered at just 2%, yet in small, focused moments, she saw what was possible.