I am an educator
I am a student
CommonLit in the news
Learn more about our impact.
D.C. Students Learn New Skills In An Old Building: Washington Leadership Academy
Forbes
WLA has worked closely with nonprofit CommonLit on a reading and writing application used in ninth and tenth grade English. Grade level reading is available in thematic units with voiceover text available for students who benefit from it. Formed by middle school teacher Michelle Brown in 2014, CommonLit's free reading platform has been accessed in over 60,000 schools. It includes 2,000 high-quality reading passages for grades three through 12 supported with assessments, data, and teacher professional learning. The organization has been recognized with awards and funding from leading foundations.
February 24, 2020
Read moreNew Certification Rewards Education Products Backed by Research
EdSurge
In an effort to help educators, parents and other education technology consumers make better choices about the products they use, Digital Promise spent the last year developing a “research-based design” product certification. And earlier this month, the nonprofit announced that 13 education companies had become the first to earn the distinction... companies that have received this certification are Actively Learn, Amplify, BrainQuake’s Wuzzit Trouble, Cignition, CommonLit, The Concord Consortium's CODAP, Goalbook, Lexia Core5 Reading, Microsoft’s Immersive Reader, Speak Agent, ST Math and Woot Math.
February 19, 2020
Read moreHow CommonLit Is Changing the Way Underprivileged Students Learn to Read With Technology
CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY
This edition of the Business of Giving features Michelle Brown, founder and CEO of the nonprofit CommonLit. While working with Teach for America in rural Mississippi, she realized the seventh grade class lacked simple resources like books. CommonLit’s high-tech literacy digital platform helps middle-school and high-school students improve their reading skills based on scientific research.
November 15, 2019
Read moreMichelle Brown
EdLab
Michelle is the founder and CEO of CommonLit, an award-winning nonprofit organization dedicated to improving adolescent literacy rates. Under Michelle’s leadership, CommonLit has become a robust, free online reading program that has reached over 10 million teachers and students. In addition to being an experienced classroom teacher, Michelle holds a B.A. in English Literature and Spanish from Butler University, and a master’s degree in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
July 1, 2019
Read moreEd-Tech Problems Open Doors for Entrepreneurs to Solve Them
Education Week
When Michelle Brown walked into a Mississippi Delta 7th grade classroom to teach English/language arts in 2009, she was shocked to discover that there were no books and also no "institutional knowledge" because of high educator turnover. Two years later, she moved to Boston, where she taught 7th grade reading at Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, a public school, and "they had everything I didn't have in Mississippi," she said. "I saw how a good curriculum makes such a difference for kids."
April 23, 2019
Read moreHelping CommonLit expand free literacy resources for teachers
Google.org
Since 2005, Google.org has given more than $250 million toward education with over $60 million going directly to nonprofits that serve teachers, and we’re proud to continue building on this commitment. Today, in honor of World Teachers’ Day, we’re announcing a $3.5 million grant to CommonLit to help expand their free, literacy resources to more teachers around the globe.
October 5, 2018
Read moreCommonLit: This Teacher Transformed U.S. Schools, Now With Another $4 Million She's Going Global
Forbes
By the end of 2018, Brown hopes to serve 8 million teachers and students, with ambitions of helping 20 million by 2020. “My dream is for every child to feel empowered, so they can see themselves in what they read and believe they can shape our world.” It may have sprung out of a small classroom in Mississippi, but this is a big dream we hope comes true.
June 7, 2018
Read moreCommonLit Poetry
Engage Their Minds
Since it is National Poetry Month, I thought I would remind you of CommonLit, which does have quite a few poetry offerings. Because CommonLit is a nonprofit organization, it promises that its resources will always be free for teachers. Take advantage of this site to encourage deeper reading, discussion, and connections.
April 16, 2018
Read moreCommonLit’s Free, High-Quality, Common-Core-Aligned Reading Passages and Literacy Resources
KQED
Commonlit.org is anything but common. It is a powerful resource. Try it for yourself, especially if you are tired of jumping from one resource to another. You might just find the resource love of your life.
April 10, 2018
Read moreHow an Education Nonprofit Grew as Fast as Facebook
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Michelle Brown had a simple idea: Build a free online library of reading materials for teachers and students. Turning the idea into a nonprofit called CommonLit was not nearly as simple. She had to raise money, hire software engineers, and secure the rights to readings that would appeal to kids with varying interests and reading levels. For a while, she took no salary and funded the organization with money...
March 7, 2018
Read moreTop 10 Educational Websites for Literacy of 2018
Homeschool Base
We use CommonLit as a base for middle and high school classes. They have hundreds of FREE short passages. Each comes with questions for students and a guide for teachers.
January 1, 2018
Read more18 D.C.-Area Startups to Watch in 2018
DC Inno
Sure, CommonLit is technically a nonprofit. The education platform has user numbers to rival those of Facebook in its early days. Startup growth in a nonprofit model is nothing to ignore. This time last year, founder and CEO Michelle Brown was moving out of 1776 and into their Eastern Market office space. CommonLit also landed a $3.9 million grant from the Department of Education last year. They’ve grown from three full-time employees to a team of 17, and Brown has plans to hire more.
December 11, 2017
Read more