March 19, 2026 • 39 mins
Jessica Reid Sliwerski CEO and Co-Founder of Ignite Reading | CEO's You Should Know
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everyone, This is Steve Delside and welcome to this
week's edition of CEOs. You should know I'm thrilled to
be joined by Jessica Reid s Lawerski, the CEO and
co founder of Ignite Reading. Jessica, thanks for being here today.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thank you so much for having me Steve.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
We're excited to jump in to learn more about you
and more about the organization. So why don't we kick
it off. I know, looking at your background, at one point,
you were an assistant principle, you were a literary specialist,
you were a nonprofit CEO, and a ed tech founder.
What moments in your career really shaped your belief that
every child can learn to read?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
So I started as a classroom teacher and initially did
not know how to teach my students how to read.
And it wasn't until my third year of teaching that
I learned how to teach my kids to read, and
I very quickly saw how easy it was to teach
them to read, and that ignited something in me around
(00:55):
wanting to ensure that every single child has the opportunity
to learn to read. If I could learn how to
teach my kids to read as a baby teacher in
my third year of teaching, which by the way, is
too late, because I should have known how to teach
them to read the minute I stepped into the classroom.
But even still being early in my journey learning to
(01:17):
teach them to read, and being in a classroom in
Harlem where one hundred percent of my students were black
and brown children, they were receiving free and reduced lunch,
many of them English was not their first language, and
all of them learned to read. And that set the
(01:38):
bar for me around what's possible for kids. It ignited
in me a desire to want to help as many
children as possible learn to read. And it carried with
me that experience of having seen what's possible for children
and knowing that it's possible, and then beginning to work
across schools and school systems and in part partnership with
(02:01):
them also help move their children to learn to read.
So when you see what's possible, you can't unsee that.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
That's awesome. A what an inspiring journey and background there.
I know that also you're a cancer survivor, congratulations, obviously
love to hear that. And an author of Cancer Hates
Kisses how has that personal journey really influence the way
that you've developed and built that mission based organization.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So when you go through a crucible in your life,
like cancer or some other incredibly difficult time, you kind
of merge with a sense of just how strong you
actually are. My therapist called this at one point post
(02:51):
traumatic growth, which I thought was really interesting. She said,
there are some people who when they go through hard things,
they just get so completely beaten down and they can't
really cope and they struggle to move on from it.
And then there are other people who life throws a curveball,
and you go through that trauma, and yet you emerge
(03:14):
from it even stronger and with a deeper sense of purpose.
And she said, and that's what you've done. And because
of that experience and learning how strong I am. I
have this belief in myself and this confidence that I
can do hard things. I get emotional because I still
(03:39):
have so much trauma around that experience. I had just
had my daughter, she was only three months old. I
didn't have a history of cancer. I was told by
doctors that I was basically imagining it and that I
was fine. And I kept advocating for myself and thank
(04:00):
goodness I did, because that tumor, unchecked, would have killed me.
But to have just had a baby, to have no history,
and then to suddenly be thrown into all of the
things that are part of breast cancer treatment. I had
a double mastectomy, I had three months of chemotherapy, I
(04:21):
had five months of hormone therapy. There's just all of
this stuff that goes along with cancer. And yet I survived,
and I emerged stronger than I ever was before. And
(04:42):
so as an entrepreneur, as a leader, as a parent,
as a human, any time life throws something hard at me,
you know you're a parent, something hard comes up every day,
And in my work as a CEO all day every day,
(05:04):
there are hard things. And yet I know I can
do hard things. If I can beat cancer, if I
can amputate my breasts and go through multiple surgeries and
lose all of my hair and chemotherapy and survive, well,
(05:25):
I can do that negotiation. I can do that feedback conversation.
I can do that board meeting or any of the
other myriad hard things that are part of showing up
and leading a company every day and fighting for what
kids deserve.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Well, first of all, very happy to hear that you
beat it and that you move forward, and thank you
for being so real and raw with us on that
experience too. But it's definitely obviously very expiring, and to
your point, obviously, to be able to come out of
that and nothing seems like a bit of a challenge anymore.
So that's a great lesson for everybody that's tuning in.
I know that before you found Ignite Reading, you were
(06:03):
also the CEO of Open Up Resources, a national nonprofit
that was focused on educational quality. Right, What did that
experience talk to you? Teach you really about like scaling
that impact in education.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So I never set out to be a CEO.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Let me start there, So I guess the first thing
it taught me is that I could be a CEO.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I going back to your earlier question where I was
talking about being a classroom teacher and just something sparking
around the incredible serotonin overflow and emotional gratification that came
from teaching kids to read and just wanting to do
(06:48):
more and.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
More and more of that.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
What grade did you teach?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
I started as a fifth grade teacher my first two years,
and then I moved down to first grade, which was
kind of terrifying because I was like, these are babies,
and they still wet their pants sometimes, and they forget
they're at school and they call you mommy, and and
then I just.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Fell in love with the first graders. And now that's officially.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Don't tell any of the kids I've previously taught, but
that is my favorite grade.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And someday I.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Actually hope that when I am an old lady who
is technically retired, that I can just volunteer all day as.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
A first grade teacher. Again.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
It's awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
But when I moved.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Into different levels of leadership, because I kept getting tapped
for opportunities and I'm a yes girl, so I'm just like, oh,
I've never done that before, okay. And then one of
those opportunities became being the CEO of Open Up Resources,
this national nonprofit, and it was really cool to get
(07:55):
to scale across the country these high quality curricula, and
we had both mathematics and literacy in our portfolio, and
my passion is literacy, and I fell in love, in
particular with one of the programs. And in the meantime
(08:18):
at home, I'm raising my daughter and she's approaching the
age of five, which developmentally is the right time to
formally begin teaching our kids to read. And I reached
out to one of the curriculum writers that we were
working with, who's also a reading researcher. Her name's doctor
(08:38):
Sharon Walpole, and I was like, hey, Sharon, you know
it's been a minute since I've been in the classroom.
I love your curriculum so much, and I want to
use it to teach Penelope to read because her school's
not teaching her. So I start teaching her to read
and sidebar it is way more pleasurable to teach other
(09:02):
people's children than it is to teach your own child.
And to this day, Penelope will say things like, Mama,
remember when you were teaching me to read? Wasn't that
so fun? And I'm like, no, no, it was not. Yeah,
what are you remembering? I Anyway, she clearly remembers the
(09:23):
joy of actually cracking the code and learning to read,
not the ways that she tortured me. But maybe that's
what she enjoys about the memory that she really tortured me. Anyways,
so I start working with her, and that's when I realized, like,
oh my gosh, I am perpetuating the shadow system and education.
(09:43):
I am giving my child what I can as a
parent who is more resourced, in this instance resource in
terms of knowledge and how to. And there are kids
sitting in her classroom, in her school, in her school
district who are not being taught to read. And that
(10:08):
made me really mad. And that's when I, you know,
inadvertently started tinkering with this concept of trying to figure
out a way to make tutoring more equitable to ensure
kids learn to read. So I guess you know, one
of the the biggest things I learned at Open Up
(10:30):
Resources was how to be a CEO because I had
the chance to step into that role that I liked
being a CEO, even though it is so hard. I
got to experience the taste of national scale and impact.
(10:53):
And I was also learning what wasn't working in the
realm of K twelve curriculum and that there was a
need for something else. And that's something else being this
level of one on one instruction and this opportunity for tutoring.
If we're going to create a safety net that ensures
(11:15):
that all kids learn to read.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So let's talk about ignite Reading. So Ignite Reading focuses
on high dosage, evidence based tutoring. What makes the model
different than past solutions.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
So oftentimes when we hear tutoring, we think outside of
the school day, separate from school, and we probably also
imagine tutoring as what most of us know, which is okay,
parent picks a child up from school and brings them
(11:50):
to some other place to receive that tutoring. And what's
different about Ignite Reading is that we are leveling the
playing field and we are ensuring that every single child
who is at risk of not learning to read on time.
And by the way, learning to read on time means
kids are learning to read before they leave first grade.
(12:15):
So that's important in all of this because a lot
of people think it's grade three.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Grade three is too late.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
And I wanted to level the playing field to ensure
that all kids can have access to tutoring. Tutoring is
really expensive, and yet if there's one thing that public
education should do above all else, it is make sure
that kids learn to read, because how can you do
anything else. You can't even do math problems starting in
(12:46):
second grade if you can't read. So we are different
in that We're not after school. We are embedded during
the school day. Specifically, we are embedded part of that
literacy ecosystem within a school. It is fifteen minutes a day,
(13:07):
It is one on one, It is virtual, but it
is with a live, real human.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
So here's what it looks like.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Classroom teacher does their whole class lesson than the kids
who are getting the Ignite Reading Intervention, grab their chromebooks
or iPads, they put on their cute headphones, they click
a button, boom on their screen is their tutor, and
they they see their tutors as their tutor. Most kids,
if you're like, what's the name of your tutor, they
(13:37):
say my tutor because they're building this relationship with them.
They see them every day and that person is teaching
them how to read. So that in and of itself
is very different. We're also different in how maniacal we
are about training our tutors. So I told you that
I didn't know how to teach reading when I stepped
(13:59):
out into the classroom.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
So one of the things that we do with our
tutors is we are.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Putting them through almost one hundred hours of paid professional
learning as part of an upfront certification before they are
then working with kids. Great, so they are expert reading
instructors when they're working with students. And then we're not
leaving anything to chance. We're doing ongoing performance management and accountability,
(14:29):
and that kind of development and investment in our tutor
core is what's ensuring that the quality of instruction each
child gets every day is nothing less than superb and
that is what's leading to these incredible outcomes we're seeing.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
That's awesome. Speaking of incredible outcomes, I know that a
John Hopkins study found that eighty five percent of proficient
students maintain their success through second grade without further intervention.
As a founder, what did it mean to see that audation?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Oh my gosh, it meant everything because it was is
the proof that I needed somebody else to stamp because
I already knew that that was true. Right, I'm a
(15:21):
lifelong educator. I taught kids to read on time in
first grade. I saw that when they learned to read
on time in first grade, when they moved a second
grade to the classroom next door.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
They were still reading right.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
When you were taught the correct way to read, And
we can get a child to the point of automaticity,
meaning they can look at the word heart and not
have to try to decode it, but they just know
it right. It's map to the brain. It's not going
to disappear yep. So it is incredibly validating and it
(15:57):
makes me so proud because we are working directly with schools,
directly with kids, and I want to know, beyond a
shadow of a doubt that what we are doing is working,
and that it's working at scale, because there are millions
of babies who need this intervention right now. So to
have that validation from Johns Hopkins University researchers saying not
(16:22):
only does this program work, it works at scale and
the outcomes are durable. The kids who got the intervention
in first grade, who made it to benchmark by the
end of first grade, we're still largely on benchmark at
the end of second grade without further intervention. That has
(16:42):
massive implications for the urgency to teach kids to read
on time, for school district budgets, and for eliminating a
crisis in our country that should not be a crisis.
It is criminal that only about thirty percent percent of
our fourth graders in our nation are proficient readers.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
It's crazy. Three out of ten kids.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
That is crazy, And it doesn't just like that magically
fix itself when they become fifth graders, eighth graders, high schoolers, adults.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeah, that's a wild stat Let's stick to the first grade.
I know research calls it the first grade window, right,
and it's that make or break yere as you mentioned
for reading and for literacy. How do you feel that
schools should like listen to that research and resape the
way that they're conducting it And what should policymakers really
think about this early education?
Speaker 3 (17:37):
So first grade is the opportunity to provide a just
in time intervention. And there is a lot happening right now.
You might have even heard this having a five year
old daughter who's in school and embarking on her journey
of learning to read. This phrase science of reading. So
(18:03):
there's a tidal wave of momentum around the science of
reading in the policy space and in K.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Twelve school systems.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
For those who don't know, science of reading is essentially
a body of research around how the brain learns to read.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Why does that matter?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Well, for decades, educators completely ignored that research and instead
just thought if they put beautiful books in front of
kids that kids would magically learn to read.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I am not making this up.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
It's crazy, and now we're like no, no, no. Kids
have to be explicitly taught. The brain has to be
wired such that kids can automatically read words. Then they
can fluently read sentences, which is the bridge to comprehension.
So first grade is crucial because in first grade the
(19:00):
bulk of the code is being taught. In kindergarten, kids
need to be learning letter names and letter sounds, and
then they need to learn the most basic part of
the code, which is how to put those letter names
and sounds together to read consonant vowel consonant words like
the word cat or the word sit okay. And then
(19:22):
they would also be learning a smattering of what we
call high frequency words, words that show up frequently in
texts like I and A the I see you nodding
because I am sure those are the things that you're.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Seeing Mila working on. Okay.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
When you enter first grade, you need those skills under
your belt, and many children enter first grade and they
still don't have those skills. Meanwhile, in first grade, you
then have to learn more complex piece the code. You
(20:01):
have to learn things like the letter S, which you
were previously tacos, and the letter H, which you were
previously takos, come together to make s h, which goes ssh.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
That's kind of mind.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Blowing, right if you're a little kid, and that's a
lot for your little brain to hold on to. Meanwhile,
you then have to start building working memory to add
on all these other sounds as you move through the code,
and the code keeps building through first grade, and we're
just talking single syllable words. We're not even getting into
(20:40):
multi syllabic words. And they've got to master all of
that to the point of automaticity so that they end
first grade on benchmark and can start second grade ready
to do multi syllabic decoding, ready to read independently and
be building knowledge. And for too long we have had
(21:03):
rhetoric nationally of read by grade three. And where that
really stems from is the fact that in third grade
you have an accountability test. But here's the disconnect. The
accountability test in third grade is a comprehension text. You
can't comprehend if you can't even read the words. If
(21:27):
your brain has to spend all of its energy just
trying to decode words in a sentence, you have nothing
left to try to understand what those words mean. So
what we have to be focused on, what we have
to be urgent about, the narrative we have to change
(21:48):
is this reading by grade three. What I am beating
the drum around is something I call the first grade Promise,
and I'm trying to galvanize school systems around this vision
of getting at least eighty five percent of our babies
to benchmark before they leave first grade so that they
can do the work in second grade of rich reading
(22:10):
and knowledge building, so that they can actually sit and
pass a test in third grade and demonstrate that they
are truly proficient readers.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
That's awesome. I know. One of the things we talked
about earlier was that individualized tutor, right, the virtual tutor.
How do you feel that technology and the human connection
could work together to really solve that national crisis that
we have right now with literacy?
Speaker 3 (22:38):
There are limitless opportunities when we combine the power of
technology and human connection, especially when we're talking about teaching
young children. There's so much hype right now about AI,
so much, so much, and especially in education. A lot
(22:59):
of that hype is turning into fear, and in the
spaces that I'm in and visiting schools and engaging with
system leaders and teachers, it's just like, oh my gosh,
AI is coming for our jobs, and I don't believe that.
And I think fear is a distraction from the real
(23:20):
opportunity here, which is how do we leverage AI and
technology to optimize the human in the loop. So with
what we're doing with Ignite Reading, we are thinking so
much about this precious one on one human connection that
kids have with their tutors that even though it's through
(23:43):
a screen, the relationships that they are building are so profound.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I mean, the kids are.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Crying when it's time for you know, right now we're
on February break and a lot of school. When it's
time for February break, kids are crying because they're not
going to see their.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Tutors for a week.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
And then when they come back, they are like running
down the hallway when it's time for Ignite Reading because
they get to see their tutor, Steve, who knows that
it's their sisters kin Sanira, or that they just lost
a tooth, or that they have a brand new pet
turtle and Steve is teaching them to read words and
read sentences, and that feels good, right, And I don't
(24:28):
want to lose that human connection.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
And also I want that human in the.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Loop to be absolutely stellar at teaching that child to
read and making sure that they are teaching into that
child's precise gaps and then aggressively moving them along that
continuum to proficiency. And that's where behind the scenes, all
of the tech that we're building can leverage AI so
(24:56):
that that tutor every single day is nothing less than
the absolute best, because that's what kids deserve.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Absolutely. As a parent, everything you're saying is amazing, right,
And from outside in it looks like everything that Ignite
Reading is incredible. But I'm sure there's been challenges behind
the scenes or obstacles that you've had to face. What
have been some of those biggest challenges or biggest obstacles
that you faced while getting this up and going.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
So it's been really interesting to build a company from
the ground up and watch it grow so quickly. So
Ignite Reading is the first company where I am co
founder and CEO and it's been built with my vision.
(25:51):
It's awesome of thank you, a world where all of
our kids learn to read on time. And that's very
different from my past executive roles and my last CEO
role where I was kind of like along for the ride,
but it was someone else's baby.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
It is my baby.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
And that's the metaphor I constantly think about. It's when
you first have a baby and you keep staring at
your baby.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
And you're just like, oh my god, I made a baby.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
I made a human, and you can't get over that
because it's so surreal.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
They're perfect.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
They're perfect, even though they look like a little alien.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
And and then you keep watching this baby grow and
you're so in awe of it because it's its own person,
even though you're the parent.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
And then you have to let other.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
People help take care of your baby, whether that's babysitter
and nanny, your parents, your in laws, the preschool, the school,
and that's kind of freaky, right You're like, oh my god,
this is my baby, but I'm gonna let you take
care of it. And it's a lot like that with
(27:13):
a company and with building this company.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
I am still.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Starstruck, I guess, and in awe of the fact that
I had this baby. Ignite reading. I have to like
pinch myself every time I walk into a school and
I see kids doing the program with big smiles on
their face and reading sentences, and a teacher is saying,
I could not do my job without ignite reading, or
(27:43):
they're saying this student, Gabriella, she started the program and
she did not know the alphabet, and now look at her,
read that paragraph and it's only been seven months, and
I'm just like, oh my gosh, like that. It's a
wild feeling. It's a wild feeling to be like this
(28:04):
idea is a real thing in real life, literally changing kids' life.
And then there's everything behind the curtain with just how
hard it is to build a company. It is so hard,
(28:26):
and I think it's also really hard when you care
so much. Like sometimes I'm like, maybe if I didn't
care so much, this wouldn't be so hard, but I
don't know how to not.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Care so much.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
And it went from you know, a small little team
of people. I remember when it was two of us
doing this. I remember when it was eight of us,
and now I have one hundred and fifty full time employees.
I have, you know, fifteen hundred tutors spread out across
the country, and one of the things that I think
(29:02):
is hardest for me because I'm such a people person.
I love the details of the work, the guts of
the work. I want to be involved in all the
things to make sure that it's like going to be
the best possible experience for our kids and our teachers
and our tutors.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
And we now have.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Different layers of employees and I show up in a
space and I'm just like, I'm just Jess, Like I'm
just teacher girl Jess who wants to nerd out about
early literacy and how to make this program better. But
to a bunch of other people in the room, I'm
CEO Jess, and I'm scary. That makes sense, right, And
(29:45):
so that's like kind of a weird thing that I
have to constantly grapple with.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
And get used to.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
The other thing is I think a lot about culture.
We're a fully virtual company and what it means to
have a large staff, to be entirely virtual, doing many
of our meetings on Zoom, and to continue to pour
into this really precious culture that we've built where there
(30:14):
is psychological safety, where people feel seen, where people feel
cared for, where we have very ambitious goals and expectations
around what we're trying to achieve, and we are kind.
No one's allowed to be in our company if they
are a jerk. You could be the smartest person in
the world. But if you're a jerk, you don't get
(30:35):
to be here, right, And it is a lot of
work to build a culture like that and to maintain
a culture like that as the company grows. And then
the last thing I'll share is something that I've recently
been grappling with. I have struggled with depression and anxiety
(31:01):
since middle school.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
I have a very harsh.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Inner voice, and in some ways, all of these things
have served me in terms of my achievements. It's like, hey,
look at what I did. People oftentimes are like, how
old are you? You've done all of these things?
Speaker 2 (31:22):
How do you do that?
Speaker 3 (31:23):
And It's like, well, because I drive myself crazy and this.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Past fall I hit a wall.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
It's you know, I'd been building the company for five
years and thinking that I could be superhuman and not sleep,
not eat enough because I'm just going from like, think
to thing to thing to thing to thing NonStop, not
(31:59):
pour into relationships, not go to yoga. I would ride
my peloton still because it's right next to my desk,
so that was easy, but like I was.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Not taking care of myself.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
And then as a result, after going five years this way,
I was so disregulated that then as all the things
that come at a CEO all day every day were
coming at me, I literally couldn't think, like like my
(32:43):
brain just stopped working. Which then when when you are
someone who is used to being quick on their feet
and a high performer and your brain's like not functioning
and you're, in my case, I think layer on top
(33:03):
of that, I'm also a female CEO, which brings like
a whole new set of fun things to deal with.
But then like imposter syndrome started coming at me really hard,
like you're not the right person for this job. You
don't know what you're doing, you don't know how to
do this. Why are you doing this job? Maybe someone
else should do this job. You don't have all the answers,
you don't know how to fix things. Like I was
(33:26):
so below the line. I couldn't be curious, I couldn't
show up and like collaborate. Well, and there was this
one meeting I went to where I was just like
such a hot mess in the meeting and afterwards, one
of my teammates who was in there with me, called
(33:49):
and was just like, are you okay? And I was
like no, and she's like, yeah, I can tell, and
you know what, we need you to be okay. We
are at this company because we believe in you, and
(34:11):
you need to take care of yourself.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
So what do you need to do to take care
of yourself? And it was just this like huge wake
up call to.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Me, and so I started taking care of myself, which
was really hard because taking care of myself meant saying
no to things. It meant prioritizing going to yoga over
banging out ten more emails, and when you're someone who
(34:41):
is obsessed with productivity, that is really hard. But what
I've been teaching myself and then seeing is you know what,
you can go to yoga and then you can come
back and you can get a good night's sleep after
a nutritious meal, and you can wake up in the
(35:01):
morning and you can bang out those ton emails faster better,
or maybe not at all because maybe you don't actually
need to do that right now, you need to do
this other thing.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
And so I have found you'll be there.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Yeah, I have found that I am happier, I am healthier,
I can show up in spaces and I can be
more thoughtful and curious and inspirational, and I can actually
be the CEO my executive team needs, my company needs,
and all of our partners need, and that this mission needs.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
If I take care of myself.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
It's great advice for every be tuning in. Before we
wrap up, I do want to talk about the launch
of the first Grade Promise and what bold step you
took on day one and how anyone that's tuning in
can actively join and making it a success.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
I am so excited about this. I feel like.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
You know that feeling, maybe you feel that in your
role where you're like, everything I've done was ultimately to
get me here to this point and this moment.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
And it's just crazy.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
The way that all of those threads unexpectedly come together,
yeah to this magical moment. And that is how I
feel about the first Grade Promise. The first Grade Promise
is what I hope is going to become the next
(36:31):
big movement in K twelve education, and not just for educators,
the system leaders, but also for policymakers, for parents, for
community members. I want this in the water. I want
everybody to have some notion of the first Grade Promise,
which is a promise that we are going to do
(36:54):
everything in our power to make sure kids learn to
read on time.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Which is before they leave first grade.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
So that means ensuring teachers have the right curriculum, that
teachers are trained, that tutoring is a safety net in
place for the most vulnerable learners, and that we're using
assessment and we're actually all holding ourselves accountable to see
where kids start at the beginning of first grade and
how they are moving towards proficiency, and all of the
(37:24):
different lovers we have to pull to make sure that
they're going to be proficient before they leave first grade.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Because if we.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Can do that, it can and it will fundamentally change
everything else.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
And I deeply believe that so many.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Of our other societal ills that we have stem from
the fact that we are not teaching kids to read
on time.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
That's awesome. We learned a lot about you about the organization.
Right if there was something that you wanted everyone to
know about the mission that we maybe did not have
a chance to cover, what would that be.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
First grade? First grade?
Speaker 3 (38:00):
First grade kids can learn to read, kids will learn
to read, and kids must learn to read in first grade.
And if you are inspired to join the first Grade Promise,
you can go to our website Ignite dash Reading dot
com and you can take the pledge to be part
(38:22):
of the first Grade Promise.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
And if someone tuning in wanted to learn more, maybe
they're a parent that's tuning in that wants to learn
more about Ignite Reading or yourself, what steps should they take?
Speaker 2 (38:32):
They should absolutely go to our website.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
It is loaded with information, including lots of informative blogs
that are all about reading. So parents who want to
be nerdy like you, I feel like you're going to
go there, stay yeah, can definitely go there. You can
also follow me on LinkedIn. That's where I'm constantly posting
information about first Grade Promise and early literacy, and that
(38:57):
is Jessica read our eid slower ski it's spelled phonetically
on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
That's awesome. Well, Jessica, thank you so much for being
here today. Thank you so much for telling us about
your background, your personal background, your uh obviously your work
background as well, and learning so much more about Ignite
Reading in the overall industry.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Thank you, Steve, this was so fun.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
It was awesome, and thank you all for tuning in
for this week's edition. Tune in next week for next
week's edition of CEOs.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
You should know
Hi, everyone, This is Steve Delside and welcome to this
week's edition of CEOs. You should know I'm thrilled to
be joined by Jessica Reid s Lawerski, the CEO and
co founder of Ignite Reading. Jessica, thanks for being here today.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thank you so much for having me Steve.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
We're excited to jump in to learn more about you
and more about the organization. So why don't we kick
it off. I know, looking at your background, at one point,
you were an assistant principle, you were a literary specialist,
you were a nonprofit CEO, and a ed tech founder.
What moments in your career really shaped your belief that
every child can learn to read?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
So I started as a classroom teacher and initially did
not know how to teach my students how to read.
And it wasn't until my third year of teaching that
I learned how to teach my kids to read, and
I very quickly saw how easy it was to teach
them to read, and that ignited something in me around
(00:55):
wanting to ensure that every single child has the opportunity
to learn to read. If I could learn how to
teach my kids to read as a baby teacher in
my third year of teaching, which by the way, is
too late, because I should have known how to teach
them to read the minute I stepped into the classroom.
But even still being early in my journey learning to
(01:17):
teach them to read, and being in a classroom in
Harlem where one hundred percent of my students were black
and brown children, they were receiving free and reduced lunch,
many of them English was not their first language, and
all of them learned to read. And that set the
(01:38):
bar for me around what's possible for kids. It ignited
in me a desire to want to help as many
children as possible learn to read. And it carried with
me that experience of having seen what's possible for children
and knowing that it's possible, and then beginning to work
across schools and school systems and in part partnership with
(02:01):
them also help move their children to learn to read.
So when you see what's possible, you can't unsee that.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
That's awesome. A what an inspiring journey and background there.
I know that also you're a cancer survivor, congratulations, obviously
love to hear that. And an author of Cancer Hates
Kisses how has that personal journey really influence the way
that you've developed and built that mission based organization.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So when you go through a crucible in your life,
like cancer or some other incredibly difficult time, you kind
of merge with a sense of just how strong you
actually are. My therapist called this at one point post
(02:51):
traumatic growth, which I thought was really interesting. She said,
there are some people who when they go through hard things,
they just get so completely beaten down and they can't
really cope and they struggle to move on from it.
And then there are other people who life throws a curveball,
and you go through that trauma, and yet you emerge
(03:14):
from it even stronger and with a deeper sense of purpose.
And she said, and that's what you've done. And because
of that experience and learning how strong I am. I
have this belief in myself and this confidence that I
can do hard things. I get emotional because I still
(03:39):
have so much trauma around that experience. I had just
had my daughter, she was only three months old. I
didn't have a history of cancer. I was told by
doctors that I was basically imagining it and that I
was fine. And I kept advocating for myself and thank
(04:00):
goodness I did, because that tumor, unchecked, would have killed me.
But to have just had a baby, to have no history,
and then to suddenly be thrown into all of the
things that are part of breast cancer treatment. I had
a double mastectomy, I had three months of chemotherapy, I
(04:21):
had five months of hormone therapy. There's just all of
this stuff that goes along with cancer. And yet I survived,
and I emerged stronger than I ever was before. And
(04:42):
so as an entrepreneur, as a leader, as a parent,
as a human, any time life throws something hard at me,
you know you're a parent, something hard comes up every day,
And in my work as a CEO all day every day,
(05:04):
there are hard things. And yet I know I can
do hard things. If I can beat cancer, if I
can amputate my breasts and go through multiple surgeries and
lose all of my hair and chemotherapy and survive, well,
(05:25):
I can do that negotiation. I can do that feedback conversation.
I can do that board meeting or any of the
other myriad hard things that are part of showing up
and leading a company every day and fighting for what
kids deserve.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Well, first of all, very happy to hear that you
beat it and that you move forward, and thank you
for being so real and raw with us on that
experience too. But it's definitely obviously very expiring, and to
your point, obviously, to be able to come out of
that and nothing seems like a bit of a challenge anymore.
So that's a great lesson for everybody that's tuning in.
I know that before you found Ignite Reading, you were
(06:03):
also the CEO of Open Up Resources, a national nonprofit
that was focused on educational quality. Right, What did that
experience talk to you? Teach you really about like scaling
that impact in education.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So I never set out to be a CEO.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Let me start there, So I guess the first thing
it taught me is that I could be a CEO.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I going back to your earlier question where I was
talking about being a classroom teacher and just something sparking
around the incredible serotonin overflow and emotional gratification that came
from teaching kids to read and just wanting to do
(06:48):
more and.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
More and more of that.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
What grade did you teach?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
I started as a fifth grade teacher my first two years,
and then I moved down to first grade, which was
kind of terrifying because I was like, these are babies,
and they still wet their pants sometimes, and they forget
they're at school and they call you mommy, and and
then I just.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Fell in love with the first graders. And now that's officially.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Don't tell any of the kids I've previously taught, but
that is my favorite grade.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And someday I.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Actually hope that when I am an old lady who
is technically retired, that I can just volunteer all day as.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
A first grade teacher. Again.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
It's awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
But when I moved.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Into different levels of leadership, because I kept getting tapped
for opportunities and I'm a yes girl, so I'm just like, oh,
I've never done that before, okay. And then one of
those opportunities became being the CEO of Open Up Resources,
this national nonprofit, and it was really cool to get
(07:55):
to scale across the country these high quality curricula, and
we had both mathematics and literacy in our portfolio, and
my passion is literacy, and I fell in love, in
particular with one of the programs. And in the meantime
(08:18):
at home, I'm raising my daughter and she's approaching the
age of five, which developmentally is the right time to
formally begin teaching our kids to read. And I reached
out to one of the curriculum writers that we were
working with, who's also a reading researcher. Her name's doctor
(08:38):
Sharon Walpole, and I was like, hey, Sharon, you know
it's been a minute since I've been in the classroom.
I love your curriculum so much, and I want to
use it to teach Penelope to read because her school's
not teaching her. So I start teaching her to read
and sidebar it is way more pleasurable to teach other
(09:02):
people's children than it is to teach your own child.
And to this day, Penelope will say things like, Mama,
remember when you were teaching me to read? Wasn't that
so fun? And I'm like, no, no, it was not. Yeah,
what are you remembering? I Anyway, she clearly remembers the
(09:23):
joy of actually cracking the code and learning to read,
not the ways that she tortured me. But maybe that's
what she enjoys about the memory that she really tortured me. Anyways,
so I start working with her, and that's when I realized, like,
oh my gosh, I am perpetuating the shadow system and education.
(09:43):
I am giving my child what I can as a
parent who is more resourced, in this instance resource in
terms of knowledge and how to. And there are kids
sitting in her classroom, in her school, in her school
district who are not being taught to read. And that
(10:08):
made me really mad. And that's when I, you know,
inadvertently started tinkering with this concept of trying to figure
out a way to make tutoring more equitable to ensure
kids learn to read. So I guess you know, one
of the the biggest things I learned at Open Up
(10:30):
Resources was how to be a CEO because I had
the chance to step into that role that I liked
being a CEO, even though it is so hard. I
got to experience the taste of national scale and impact.
(10:53):
And I was also learning what wasn't working in the
realm of K twelve curriculum and that there was a
need for something else. And that's something else being this
level of one on one instruction and this opportunity for tutoring.
If we're going to create a safety net that ensures
(11:15):
that all kids learn to read.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So let's talk about ignite Reading. So Ignite Reading focuses
on high dosage, evidence based tutoring. What makes the model
different than past solutions.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
So oftentimes when we hear tutoring, we think outside of
the school day, separate from school, and we probably also
imagine tutoring as what most of us know, which is okay,
parent picks a child up from school and brings them
(11:50):
to some other place to receive that tutoring. And what's
different about Ignite Reading is that we are leveling the
playing field and we are ensuring that every single child
who is at risk of not learning to read on time.
And by the way, learning to read on time means
kids are learning to read before they leave first grade.
(12:15):
So that's important in all of this because a lot
of people think it's grade three.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Grade three is too late.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
And I wanted to level the playing field to ensure
that all kids can have access to tutoring. Tutoring is
really expensive, and yet if there's one thing that public
education should do above all else, it is make sure
that kids learn to read, because how can you do
anything else. You can't even do math problems starting in
(12:46):
second grade if you can't read. So we are different
in that We're not after school. We are embedded during
the school day. Specifically, we are embedded part of that
literacy ecosystem within a school. It is fifteen minutes a day,
(13:07):
It is one on one, It is virtual, but it
is with a live, real human.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
So here's what it looks like.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Classroom teacher does their whole class lesson than the kids
who are getting the Ignite Reading Intervention, grab their chromebooks
or iPads, they put on their cute headphones, they click
a button, boom on their screen is their tutor, and
they they see their tutors as their tutor. Most kids,
if you're like, what's the name of your tutor, they
(13:37):
say my tutor because they're building this relationship with them.
They see them every day and that person is teaching
them how to read. So that in and of itself
is very different. We're also different in how maniacal we
are about training our tutors. So I told you that
I didn't know how to teach reading when I stepped
(13:59):
out into the classroom.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
So one of the things that we do with our
tutors is we are.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Putting them through almost one hundred hours of paid professional
learning as part of an upfront certification before they are
then working with kids. Great, so they are expert reading
instructors when they're working with students. And then we're not
leaving anything to chance. We're doing ongoing performance management and accountability,
(14:29):
and that kind of development and investment in our tutor
core is what's ensuring that the quality of instruction each
child gets every day is nothing less than superb and
that is what's leading to these incredible outcomes we're seeing.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
That's awesome. Speaking of incredible outcomes, I know that a
John Hopkins study found that eighty five percent of proficient
students maintain their success through second grade without further intervention.
As a founder, what did it mean to see that audation?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Oh my gosh, it meant everything because it was is
the proof that I needed somebody else to stamp because
I already knew that that was true. Right, I'm a
(15:21):
lifelong educator. I taught kids to read on time in
first grade. I saw that when they learned to read
on time in first grade, when they moved a second
grade to the classroom next door.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
They were still reading right.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
When you were taught the correct way to read, And
we can get a child to the point of automaticity,
meaning they can look at the word heart and not
have to try to decode it, but they just know
it right. It's map to the brain. It's not going
to disappear yep. So it is incredibly validating and it
(15:57):
makes me so proud because we are working directly with schools,
directly with kids, and I want to know, beyond a
shadow of a doubt that what we are doing is working,
and that it's working at scale, because there are millions
of babies who need this intervention right now. So to
have that validation from Johns Hopkins University researchers saying not
(16:22):
only does this program work, it works at scale and
the outcomes are durable. The kids who got the intervention
in first grade, who made it to benchmark by the
end of first grade, we're still largely on benchmark at
the end of second grade without further intervention. That has
(16:42):
massive implications for the urgency to teach kids to read
on time, for school district budgets, and for eliminating a
crisis in our country that should not be a crisis.
It is criminal that only about thirty percent percent of
our fourth graders in our nation are proficient readers.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
It's crazy. Three out of ten kids.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
That is crazy, And it doesn't just like that magically
fix itself when they become fifth graders, eighth graders, high schoolers, adults.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeah, that's a wild stat Let's stick to the first grade.
I know research calls it the first grade window, right,
and it's that make or break yere as you mentioned
for reading and for literacy. How do you feel that
schools should like listen to that research and resape the
way that they're conducting it And what should policymakers really
think about this early education?
Speaker 3 (17:37):
So first grade is the opportunity to provide a just
in time intervention. And there is a lot happening right now.
You might have even heard this having a five year
old daughter who's in school and embarking on her journey
of learning to read. This phrase science of reading. So
(18:03):
there's a tidal wave of momentum around the science of
reading in the policy space and in K.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Twelve school systems.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
For those who don't know, science of reading is essentially
a body of research around how the brain learns to read.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Why does that matter?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Well, for decades, educators completely ignored that research and instead
just thought if they put beautiful books in front of
kids that kids would magically learn to read.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I am not making this up.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
It's crazy, and now we're like no, no, no. Kids
have to be explicitly taught. The brain has to be
wired such that kids can automatically read words. Then they
can fluently read sentences, which is the bridge to comprehension.
So first grade is crucial because in first grade the
(19:00):
bulk of the code is being taught. In kindergarten, kids
need to be learning letter names and letter sounds, and
then they need to learn the most basic part of
the code, which is how to put those letter names
and sounds together to read consonant vowel consonant words like
the word cat or the word sit okay. And then
(19:22):
they would also be learning a smattering of what we
call high frequency words, words that show up frequently in
texts like I and A the I see you nodding
because I am sure those are the things that you're.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Seeing Mila working on. Okay.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
When you enter first grade, you need those skills under
your belt, and many children enter first grade and they
still don't have those skills. Meanwhile, in first grade, you
then have to learn more complex piece the code. You
(20:01):
have to learn things like the letter S, which you
were previously tacos, and the letter H, which you were
previously takos, come together to make s h, which goes ssh.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
That's kind of mind.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Blowing, right if you're a little kid, and that's a
lot for your little brain to hold on to. Meanwhile,
you then have to start building working memory to add
on all these other sounds as you move through the code,
and the code keeps building through first grade, and we're
just talking single syllable words. We're not even getting into
(20:40):
multi syllabic words. And they've got to master all of
that to the point of automaticity so that they end
first grade on benchmark and can start second grade ready
to do multi syllabic decoding, ready to read independently and
be building knowledge. And for too long we have had
(21:03):
rhetoric nationally of read by grade three. And where that
really stems from is the fact that in third grade
you have an accountability test. But here's the disconnect. The
accountability test in third grade is a comprehension text. You
can't comprehend if you can't even read the words. If
(21:27):
your brain has to spend all of its energy just
trying to decode words in a sentence, you have nothing
left to try to understand what those words mean. So
what we have to be focused on, what we have
to be urgent about, the narrative we have to change
(21:48):
is this reading by grade three. What I am beating
the drum around is something I call the first grade Promise,
and I'm trying to galvanize school systems around this vision
of getting at least eighty five percent of our babies
to benchmark before they leave first grade so that they
can do the work in second grade of rich reading
(22:10):
and knowledge building, so that they can actually sit and
pass a test in third grade and demonstrate that they
are truly proficient readers.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
That's awesome. I know. One of the things we talked
about earlier was that individualized tutor, right, the virtual tutor.
How do you feel that technology and the human connection
could work together to really solve that national crisis that
we have right now with literacy?
Speaker 3 (22:38):
There are limitless opportunities when we combine the power of
technology and human connection, especially when we're talking about teaching
young children. There's so much hype right now about AI,
so much, so much, and especially in education. A lot
(22:59):
of that hype is turning into fear, and in the
spaces that I'm in and visiting schools and engaging with
system leaders and teachers, it's just like, oh my gosh,
AI is coming for our jobs, and I don't believe that.
And I think fear is a distraction from the real
(23:20):
opportunity here, which is how do we leverage AI and
technology to optimize the human in the loop. So with
what we're doing with Ignite Reading, we are thinking so
much about this precious one on one human connection that
kids have with their tutors that even though it's through
(23:43):
a screen, the relationships that they are building are so profound.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I mean, the kids are.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Crying when it's time for you know, right now we're
on February break and a lot of school. When it's
time for February break, kids are crying because they're not
going to see their.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Tutors for a week.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
And then when they come back, they are like running
down the hallway when it's time for Ignite Reading because
they get to see their tutor, Steve, who knows that
it's their sisters kin Sanira, or that they just lost
a tooth, or that they have a brand new pet
turtle and Steve is teaching them to read words and
read sentences, and that feels good, right, And I don't
(24:28):
want to lose that human connection.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
And also I want that human in the.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Loop to be absolutely stellar at teaching that child to
read and making sure that they are teaching into that
child's precise gaps and then aggressively moving them along that
continuum to proficiency. And that's where behind the scenes, all
of the tech that we're building can leverage AI so
(24:56):
that that tutor every single day is nothing less than
the absolute best, because that's what kids deserve.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Absolutely. As a parent, everything you're saying is amazing, right,
And from outside in it looks like everything that Ignite
Reading is incredible. But I'm sure there's been challenges behind
the scenes or obstacles that you've had to face. What
have been some of those biggest challenges or biggest obstacles
that you faced while getting this up and going.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
So it's been really interesting to build a company from
the ground up and watch it grow so quickly. So
Ignite Reading is the first company where I am co
founder and CEO and it's been built with my vision.
(25:51):
It's awesome of thank you, a world where all of
our kids learn to read on time. And that's very
different from my past executive roles and my last CEO
role where I was kind of like along for the ride,
but it was someone else's baby.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
It is my baby.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
And that's the metaphor I constantly think about. It's when
you first have a baby and you keep staring at
your baby.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
And you're just like, oh my god, I made a baby.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
I made a human, and you can't get over that
because it's so surreal.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
They're perfect.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
They're perfect, even though they look like a little alien.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
And and then you keep watching this baby grow and
you're so in awe of it because it's its own person,
even though you're the parent.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
And then you have to let other.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
People help take care of your baby, whether that's babysitter
and nanny, your parents, your in laws, the preschool, the school,
and that's kind of freaky, right You're like, oh my god,
this is my baby, but I'm gonna let you take
care of it. And it's a lot like that with
(27:13):
a company and with building this company.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
I am still.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Starstruck, I guess, and in awe of the fact that
I had this baby. Ignite reading. I have to like
pinch myself every time I walk into a school and
I see kids doing the program with big smiles on
their face and reading sentences, and a teacher is saying,
I could not do my job without ignite reading, or
(27:43):
they're saying this student, Gabriella, she started the program and
she did not know the alphabet, and now look at her,
read that paragraph and it's only been seven months, and
I'm just like, oh my gosh, like that. It's a
wild feeling. It's a wild feeling to be like this
(28:04):
idea is a real thing in real life, literally changing kids' life.
And then there's everything behind the curtain with just how
hard it is to build a company. It is so hard,
(28:26):
and I think it's also really hard when you care
so much. Like sometimes I'm like, maybe if I didn't
care so much, this wouldn't be so hard, but I
don't know how to not.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Care so much.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
And it went from you know, a small little team
of people. I remember when it was two of us
doing this. I remember when it was eight of us,
and now I have one hundred and fifty full time employees.
I have, you know, fifteen hundred tutors spread out across
the country, and one of the things that I think
(29:02):
is hardest for me because I'm such a people person.
I love the details of the work, the guts of
the work. I want to be involved in all the
things to make sure that it's like going to be
the best possible experience for our kids and our teachers
and our tutors.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
And we now have.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Different layers of employees and I show up in a
space and I'm just like, I'm just Jess, Like I'm
just teacher girl Jess who wants to nerd out about
early literacy and how to make this program better. But
to a bunch of other people in the room, I'm
CEO Jess, and I'm scary. That makes sense, right, And
(29:45):
so that's like kind of a weird thing that I
have to constantly grapple with.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
And get used to.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
The other thing is I think a lot about culture.
We're a fully virtual company and what it means to
have a large staff, to be entirely virtual, doing many
of our meetings on Zoom, and to continue to pour
into this really precious culture that we've built where there
(30:14):
is psychological safety, where people feel seen, where people feel
cared for, where we have very ambitious goals and expectations
around what we're trying to achieve, and we are kind.
No one's allowed to be in our company if they
are a jerk. You could be the smartest person in
the world. But if you're a jerk, you don't get
(30:35):
to be here, right, And it is a lot of
work to build a culture like that and to maintain
a culture like that as the company grows. And then
the last thing I'll share is something that I've recently
been grappling with. I have struggled with depression and anxiety
(31:01):
since middle school.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
I have a very harsh.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Inner voice, and in some ways, all of these things
have served me in terms of my achievements. It's like, hey,
look at what I did. People oftentimes are like, how
old are you? You've done all of these things?
Speaker 2 (31:22):
How do you do that?
Speaker 3 (31:23):
And It's like, well, because I drive myself crazy and this.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Past fall I hit a wall.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
It's you know, I'd been building the company for five
years and thinking that I could be superhuman and not sleep,
not eat enough because I'm just going from like, think
to thing to thing to thing to thing NonStop, not
(31:59):
pour into relationships, not go to yoga. I would ride
my peloton still because it's right next to my desk,
so that was easy, but like I was.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Not taking care of myself.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
And then as a result, after going five years this way,
I was so disregulated that then as all the things
that come at a CEO all day every day were
coming at me, I literally couldn't think, like like my
(32:43):
brain just stopped working. Which then when when you are
someone who is used to being quick on their feet
and a high performer and your brain's like not functioning
and you're, in my case, I think layer on top
(33:03):
of that, I'm also a female CEO, which brings like
a whole new set of fun things to deal with.
But then like imposter syndrome started coming at me really hard,
like you're not the right person for this job. You
don't know what you're doing, you don't know how to
do this. Why are you doing this job? Maybe someone
else should do this job. You don't have all the answers,
you don't know how to fix things. Like I was
(33:26):
so below the line. I couldn't be curious, I couldn't
show up and like collaborate. Well, and there was this
one meeting I went to where I was just like
such a hot mess in the meeting and afterwards, one
of my teammates who was in there with me, called
(33:49):
and was just like, are you okay? And I was
like no, and she's like, yeah, I can tell, and
you know what, we need you to be okay. We
are at this company because we believe in you, and
(34:11):
you need to take care of yourself.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
So what do you need to do to take care
of yourself? And it was just this like huge wake
up call to.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Me, and so I started taking care of myself, which
was really hard because taking care of myself meant saying
no to things. It meant prioritizing going to yoga over
banging out ten more emails, and when you're someone who
(34:41):
is obsessed with productivity, that is really hard. But what
I've been teaching myself and then seeing is you know what,
you can go to yoga and then you can come
back and you can get a good night's sleep after
a nutritious meal, and you can wake up in the
(35:01):
morning and you can bang out those ton emails faster better,
or maybe not at all because maybe you don't actually
need to do that right now, you need to do
this other thing.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
And so I have found you'll be there.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Yeah, I have found that I am happier, I am healthier,
I can show up in spaces and I can be
more thoughtful and curious and inspirational, and I can actually
be the CEO my executive team needs, my company needs,
and all of our partners need, and that this mission needs.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
If I take care of myself.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
It's great advice for every be tuning in. Before we
wrap up, I do want to talk about the launch
of the first Grade Promise and what bold step you
took on day one and how anyone that's tuning in
can actively join and making it a success.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
I am so excited about this. I feel like.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
You know that feeling, maybe you feel that in your
role where you're like, everything I've done was ultimately to
get me here to this point and this moment.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
And it's just crazy.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
The way that all of those threads unexpectedly come together,
yeah to this magical moment. And that is how I
feel about the first Grade Promise. The first Grade Promise
is what I hope is going to become the next
(36:31):
big movement in K twelve education, and not just for educators,
the system leaders, but also for policymakers, for parents, for
community members. I want this in the water. I want
everybody to have some notion of the first Grade Promise,
which is a promise that we are going to do
(36:54):
everything in our power to make sure kids learn to
read on time.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Which is before they leave first grade.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
So that means ensuring teachers have the right curriculum, that
teachers are trained, that tutoring is a safety net in
place for the most vulnerable learners, and that we're using
assessment and we're actually all holding ourselves accountable to see
where kids start at the beginning of first grade and
how they are moving towards proficiency, and all of the
(37:24):
different lovers we have to pull to make sure that
they're going to be proficient before they leave first grade.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Because if we.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Can do that, it can and it will fundamentally change
everything else.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
And I deeply believe that so many.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Of our other societal ills that we have stem from
the fact that we are not teaching kids to read
on time.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
That's awesome. We learned a lot about you about the organization.
Right if there was something that you wanted everyone to
know about the mission that we maybe did not have
a chance to cover, what would that be.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
First grade? First grade?
Speaker 3 (38:00):
First grade kids can learn to read, kids will learn
to read, and kids must learn to read in first grade.
And if you are inspired to join the first Grade Promise,
you can go to our website Ignite dash Reading dot
com and you can take the pledge to be part
(38:22):
of the first Grade Promise.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
And if someone tuning in wanted to learn more, maybe
they're a parent that's tuning in that wants to learn
more about Ignite Reading or yourself, what steps should they take?
Speaker 2 (38:32):
They should absolutely go to our website.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
It is loaded with information, including lots of informative blogs
that are all about reading. So parents who want to
be nerdy like you, I feel like you're going to
go there, stay yeah, can definitely go there. You can
also follow me on LinkedIn. That's where I'm constantly posting
information about first Grade Promise and early literacy, and that
(38:57):
is Jessica read our eid slower ski it's spelled phonetically
on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
That's awesome. Well, Jessica, thank you so much for being
here today. Thank you so much for telling us about
your background, your personal background, your uh obviously your work
background as well, and learning so much more about Ignite
Reading in the overall industry.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Thank you, Steve, this was so fun.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
It was awesome, and thank you all for tuning in
for this week's edition. Tune in next week for next
week's edition of CEOs.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
You should know
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