BOSTON – Senator John Kerry and Congresswoman Niki Tsongas today announced that Lawrence based Little Sprouts (LS) will receive $4,395,813 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education.
 
The funding will be allow LS to create an Early Reading First program based on its EPIC! Values – Excellence, Passion, Innovation and Courage. EPIC! will serve 342 preschool students and 40 teachers in 19 classrooms and transform five LS programs located in communities with high populations of at-risk, low-income students. LS uses instructional strategies and professional development based on scientifically based reading research.
 
“Early literacy programs are so critical because of the simple fact that children who grow up reading are more successful than those who don’t,” said Senator Kerry. “By making this significant investment in early childhood education, we will engage hundreds of Massachusetts children in reading and prepare them for future success.”
 
"Early childhood reading is a critically important component of childhood development and contributes greatly to a child’s ability to arrive at school ready to learn and achieve.  We are fortunate to have such an outstanding program here in the Merrimack Valley that is helping young children to read at an age appropriate level and I am so pleased that the Department of Education has provided this significant amount of funds to promote this worthy initiative," said Congresswoman Niki Tsongas.
 
“Little Sprouts is honored to have our literacy program acknowledged for the 3rd time with the US Department of Education’s Early Reading First Award. These funds will allow us to realize our dreams by expanding into several of the most at- risk communities in the Commonwealth and offer these children the tools needed for lifelong reading success. My personal thanks and acknowledgement to  Congresswoman Tsongas, Senator Kerry, and our late great Senator Kennedy for their support in ensuring the children of Massachusetts received this extraordinary opportunity that will change their world,” said Susan Leger Ferraro, President of Little Sprouts.
 
“This grant will enable us to see amazing growth in our students at this crucial period of their lives.  Our current literacy program has increased our Little Sprouts’ children’s test scores by 120%, and 95% of all graduates are sent to elementary school with age appropriate literacy benchmarks,” Meghan McGinley Crowe, Program Director of Little Sprouts’ Early Reading First Project.
 
Today Little Sprouts serves over 700 families and has locations in Amesbury, Andover, Dedham, Haverhill (2), Lawrence, Lowell, Methuen, North Andover, Roxbury and Woburn.