Holyoke Public Schools is now entering its third year of participation in the Ignite Reading program designed to improve literacy skills for students in grades K-3.
District and school leaders saw significant literacy gains during the 2025-26 school year and are anticipating continued growth this year.
Last year, 333 Holyoke students across six schools logged 7,601 collective hours of targeted reading instruction—averaging more than 22.5 intensive hours per student—through the Ignite Reading program's high-dosage individualized tutoring for students across all six of the district’s elementary schools. Ignite Reading is among the programs and strategies that HPS has incorporated in recent years to strengthen early literacy.
Data from the Ignite Reading program in 2025-26 reveal significant breakthroughs for Holyoke's K-3 students:
Kindergarten mastery: 89% of participating students who started the year lacking kindergarten-level foundational skills have now fully closed those gaps.
First grade breakthroughs: 70% of participating students who entered first-grade lacking foundational skills have officially moved past those gaps and are now reading sentences and paragraphs at a second-grade level.
Accelerated growth: For first-grade students who entered the program missing foundational skills from kindergarten, 46% completely closed their kindergarten gaps and successfully transitioned to on-grade-level skills.
“With early literacy serving as the single most critical predictor of a student's long-term academic success, these numbers represent an important win for Holyoke's educators, families, and youngest learners,” said Chief of Academics Rebecca Thompson.
The Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation provided $282,500 in initial grant funding to launch the program in 2024, with continued support the following year.