The Healey-Driscoll Administration is ringing in a new educational milestone with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) securing a hefty $10 million grant from the U.S. Education Department, earmarked for a noble cause—to bolster early literacy tutoring, as reported by the official state website. This grant is designated for the 2026-27 school year and seeks to complement the $25 million in Fair Share funds already pledged for high-dosage tutoring programs across 272 elementary schools in the state. Evidence shows this model, which involves one-on-one or small-group sessions multiple times a week for a minimum of ten weeks, has a record of propelling literacy achievements forward, especially for those students grappling to stay on grade level.
Governor Maura Healey expressed her sentiments on this educational boon, saying, "We know that improving early literacy is vitally important to improving our students’ futures, and high dosage tutoring has been proven to be highly effective," and this sentiment was echoed by Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, who saw the grant as a "welcome investment" in the future of Massachusetts' youth. Both quotes, indicating the administration's dedication to the cause, were obtained directly from the aforementioned state announcement. This isn't the first instance of federal backing, with September 2024 witnessing the state receiving a $38.4 million federal literacy grant, all of which falls under the administration’s broader Literacy Launch initiative that looks to transform early literacy through various resources and training programs for educators.
This federal bonanza is interwoven with additional state and nodal funds to signify early literacy as a keystone agenda item, like Education Secretary Dr. Patrick Tutwiler aptly put it in a statement saying, "This federal grant, paired with other state and federal investments, is a reflection of how important early literacy is," with these words directly culled from the state news release. The commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, Pedro Martinez, also stressed the significance of literacy as groundwork for better overall academic performance, hoping the tutoring would usher students into that space of progress and enthusiasm for reading.
A plethora of initiatives has been sprouting under the Literacy Launch umbrella to sow the seeds for reading success. Partnership for Reading Success – Massachusetts (PRISM) grants and Literacy Launch Institutes are just some examples. These Institutes alone trained 500 educators in the summer of 2025, with projections of another 1,300 to receive training in forthcoming sessions, illustrating the administration's deep-seated commitment to educator preparedness in literacy, all of which is detailed in the official state release.
