THE PERSONALIZED LITERACY MICROGRANT · 2026
Become a Literacy Champion.
Five middle schools will be named Learney Literacy Champions for the 2026–27 school year. Each one pioneers a national cohort with a fully funded Learney pilot: daily, curriculum-aligned reading, writing, and speaking practice, personalized to every student. Twenty-five more schools receive matching grants.
Aligning evidence-based instruction with the unique learning pathway of every student.
Valued at $5,000
No cost, no catch
PD & cohort meetings included
Apply in under 10 minutes
Applications close October 5, 2026
Winners announced October 15, 2026
THE AWARD
What winning schools receive
This is not a one-off demo. It's a fully funded pilot for the 2026–27 school year, with onboarding, PD, and a cohort of schools working alongside you.
Literacy Champions · 5 schools
Learney for your whole school
Up to $5,000 per school
School-wide licenseUp to 1,000 students, across classrooms, the school library, and home, for the 2026–27 school year.
90-minute onboarding & PDfor your teaching team, including roster sync with Clever, ClassLink, and Google Classroom.
Monthly cohort meetupsShare best practices with other grantee schools all year.
Honorable Mention · 25 winners
Matching grant & launch support
Custom match, based on school size
Matching grantToward bringing Learney to your school.
Launch supportComplimentary PD and self-paced teacher training.
Monthly cohort meetupsAlongside the Grand Prize schools.
$25,000 in awards to five Champion schools, plus matching grants for 25 more. No purchase necessary.
WHY IT MATTERS
Somewhere in middle school, literacy stalls.
Students can read the words, but understanding complex text, writing a clear paragraph, and speaking about what they read is where they fall behind.
2 in 3
eighth-graders score below proficient in reading on the national report card (NAEP). This grant is built for the students working a year or more below grade level, and for English Learners bridging conversational fluency to academic language.
HOW LEARNEY WORKS
One routine. Reading, writing, and speaking. No extra prep for you.
Grounded in structured literacy and the Science of Reading. Reading, writing, and speaking in a single ELA intervention that meets each student at their exact level, and hands you the insight.
Reading
Close-reading practice with vocabulary support and scaffolded questions that build comprehension and background knowledge in content areas.
Writing
Draft, revise, resubmit. Clear feedback on grammar, vocabulary, and structure, with a before-and-after record of every piece.
Speaking
Structured academic speaking with growth-focused feedback that builds how students explain their thinking, never pronunciation policing.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Delivered daily, adapted automatically
Each student gets practice at their own level, every day, without you choosing content or grading it by hand.
CLASS LESSONS
You choose, you assign
Pick a lesson and send it to the whole class on your schedule. Full teacher control when you want it.
Learney doesn't write for your students.
The AI reads their work, flags what to improve, and the student revises. That returns grading and prep hours to teachers. Learney is COPPA and FERPA compliant, and student work is never used to train AI models.
WHO QUALIFIES
For U.S. middle schools serving readers who need to catch up.
Middle schools, grades 6–8
The critical developmental window for academic literacy.
Built for Tier 2 and below-grade-level readers
Students a year or more below level, including English Learners (ELs/ELLs).
Open nationwide
Any state, whether city, town, or rural district.
An authorized school administrator must be named
A teacher or coach can start it, but the application must include an authorized administrator.
TIMELINE
From application to celebration.
1
APPLY
An online form that takes under 10 minutes.
Closes Oct 5, 2026
2
Winners announced
5 Literacy Champion and 25 Honorable Mention schools.
Oct 15, 2026
3
Onboard
90-minute PD and roster sync with Clever, ClassLink, and Google Classroom.
Fall 2026
4
Cohort & results
Monthly meetups, then an efficacy review and celebration.
Winter–Spring 2027
What we ask of grantees
The goal of this grant is to document what works. Use Learney's daily reading, writing, and speaking practice, join the monthly cohort to share best practices, and take part in a spring efficacy review. Grantees agree to share their implementation experience, which may be featured in case studies and program materials, so your results help every school that follows.
GOOD TO KNOW
Questions, answered.
Bring personalized literacy to your students.
The application takes under 10 minutes and closes October 5, 2026.
Apply now
Prefer to share it first? Download the one-page overview (PDF)
Questions? microgrant@learney.school