A presentation by Literacy expert and entrepreneur Jacquelyn Davis
Jacquelyn Davis spent the better part of the last two years on an unexpected journey – a true labor of love that was inspired both by her nine-year old son, Madden, and her passion for advancing equity in education.
Madden struggled to read because he is dyslexic, but as it turns out that 67% (over 2/3rds) of children in the United States cannot read at grade-level by 4th grade due mostly to inadequate curriculums and poorly trained teachers rather than diagnosed learning differences.
Only 20% of children have learning differences so the vast majority of those not literate by 4th grade is a result of poor educational quality. Moreover, neuroscientists have demonstrated that 95% of children have the cognitive ability to read at grade-level by 4th grade, but without the science-based effective reading curriculums and teaching methods too many don’t. This is a national tragedy, and the Pandemic has only made things worse.
Jacquelyn is about to launch Clever Noodle, an educational “learn to read” analogue game company that will provide a suite of high-quality reading games and resources aimed at improving grade-level reading outcomes for elementary school students! She has a prototype of the first game, Kangaroo Cravings (see sneak peak of the board below), that has been tested by hundreds of children, classroom teachers, literacy experts, principals and parents. There are 3 more games in development based on the games that worked for her son.
She was named an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Bellwether Education, a national nonprofit (501c3) education organization incubating Clever Noodle. She is not just launching Clever Noodle, but also starting an accompanying nonprofit as a platform for advocacy, speaking and pushing the needle forward on early literacy.
Clever Noodle designs games that support young students at each stage of their “learning to read” journey. We ignite every child’s potential by crafting fun, offline experiences based on cutting-edge reading science.
