Originally published on 9/13/22
More than 350 third-grade students representing 391 schools from 11 school districts across the Houston area (Aldine ISD, Alief ISD, Alvin ISD, Channelview ISD, Cleveland ISD, Crosby ISD, Cy-Fair ISD, Houston ISD, Pasadena ISD, Spring ISD, Stafford MSD) celebrated the launch of the Read to the Final Four program during a ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 8 at the Barbara Bush Literacy Plaza within the Houston Public Library. Twenty-one of those were 3rd grade students from 18 Alvin ISD elementary schools.
The annual literacy initiative is led by the 2023 NCAA® Men’s Final Four and Houston Local Organizing Committee (HLOC).
To engage Houston area youth and leave a lasting, positive impact on students, the NCAA and HLOC teamed up to promote and inspire reading growth for third graders through a year-long, citywide reading initiative. The program centers around a tournament-style reading competition for thousands of Houston third graders.
The Read to the Final Four's purpose is to promote and inspire reading for third graders through a fun and engaging bracket-style competition. Schools compete as third-grade teams and earn points based on a formula that calculates the average minutes read per school. Top schools in each district advance throughout the rounds winning prizes and having fun along the way.
The program kicks off in November with a five-week reading season. In January, 2023, there will be a school bracket seeding which will be composed of top 64 schools. In March, 2023, the top readers will be recognized during Men’s Final Four week and on March 31, 2023, the winning schools will be announced at the Reese’s Final Four Friday event with a cash prize given to the school with the most participation and minutes logged!
“We are excited to see how our third-grade students compete,” shared Carol Nelson, Alvin ISD Superintendent. “We have some competitive students and the ones who attended the pep rally were excited to go back to their campuses and pump up the rest of their third-grade classmates.”