Photography by Sylvia Elzafon
Third grade is a pivotal part of a child’s education.
It’s when they start STAAR testing and are expected to be able to read to learn, rather than learn to read.
Local nonprofit Catch Up & Read aims to ensure that all Dallas ISD students are reading on-level by the third grade through after school tutoring by teachers who are trained and paid by the nonprofit.
Children at neighborhood schools like Nathan Adams and Stephen C. Foster Elementary, among many others across the district, benefit from Catch Up & Read’s program, which has found that their students are more likely to meet their growth projections and pass STAAR compared to campus peers.
New president and CEO Carol Goglia comes from previous role at United to Learn, where she served as the as the president and strategic impact advisor. While Catch Up & Read focuses on an individual student’s reading ability, United to Learn partners with community organizations to improve elementary schools in the district.
“Given the reading crisis we’re facing as a nation, there is nothing more important than investing in our children and their teachers,” Goglia says.
What got you interested in educational nonprofits?
I’ve always been passionate about education. My mom was a teacher and my mother-in-law was a reading specialist and then a principal. School is one of my happy places in life. When I was moving from the corporate sector to nonprofit education that was really what was most interesting to me. I first started at Communities Foundation of Texas, which has Educate Texas as a part of it. I was excited to be a part of growing a community-wide giving movement there with North Texas Giving Day. As far as my specific area of interest, education has been that for me.
How did working in the corporate sector help you transition into the nonprofit world?
My immediate job right before was working for FritoLay and PepsiCo in marketing. Learning all about consumer insights and thinking about what really motivates people, whether that be what they’re choosing as their favorite snack or choosing how to spend their time and money, goes to those same basic needs. My background in business was not only the business management side of it, but also the consumer insights and the psychology of why people buy, and translating that into the nonprofit sector, why people give.
What exactly is Catch Up & Read?
We really have two sides of what we do. One is equipping the teachers with data-driven science and reading instruction. The other is taking that to the students. Working with the low-income students in our schools, we tutor in both English and Spanish. That bilingual advantage really meets children where they are, and every lesson begins with social-emotional preparation to make sure that the students are ready to learn. Then we do all sorts of other fun things to keep students engaged, whether that be tokens or other incentives for getting them to focus on the key skill that they’re learning and move through their foundational skills to become proficient readers.
what are your goals for the nonprofit?
First getting to know our schools and really getting to see our program in action is really important so that I can see the magic and those lightbulb moments with both the students and the teachers. Then getting to put together a strategy about how we can grow our impact, whether that be from enhancing what we do with our current schools or confine our methods so that we can go to more schools.
What is something about you that readers would be surprised to learn?
I’m a big summer camp proponent, and I’m a big fan of the arts as well as creative expression. My daughter (a Hockaday grad) is getting her BFA in theater. We have a dog, a Goldendoodle, named Winnie. I’m also a breast cancer survivor. I spend my weekends at youth sports whether that be a regatta for my son who rows, or my eighth grader who plays a lot of soccer and lacrosse.
Interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
