Want to ensure that more students in your school or district who require accessible educational materials (AEM) are reading with Bookshare? We asked some of Bookshare’s top accounts how they made sure every student who needs learning materials in accessible formats – audio, digital text, large print, braille – gets the resources and tools they need. What did these districts have in common? Read on to learn more!
Shout out to these districts
Who are the top 10 districts* using Bookshare to support students with AEM? Three cheers for these districts!
- West Seneca Central School District, New York
- Brockton Public Schools, Massachusetts
- Charleston County School District, South Carolina
- NYC Community School District 11, New York
- Frederick County Public Schools, Maryland
- Pittsford Central School District, New York
- Northwest Allen County Schools, Indiana
- Dublin City Schools, Ohio
- Salem-Keizer School District, Oregon
- Bergman Public Schools, Arkansas
*These districts demonstrated the highest growth in number of students reading Bookshare books between 2022 and 2023.
Note: Albuquerque Public Schools had the highest increase nationwide. However, Benetech employs an Outreach Coordinator to collaboratively support that district, so it was removed for an impartial analysis.
What Works?
We contacted Sponsors on those accounts and asked them all the same five questions including; “What has influenced the use of Bookshare by students in your school?” and “What has contributed to the recent increase of students who use Bookshare in your school district in the past year?”
As we talked with the educators, it immediately stood out that they were what we call “Bookshare Champions” who played a leading role in increasing use by communicating about Bookshare, facilitating collaboration among educators, and providing training and technical assistance.
These Bookshare Champions supported educators in impactful ways:
Set Up a District Level Account: They implement Bookshare via one main account managed by district-level employees. This streamlines the implementation of Bookshare across the district, facilitating better monitoring and support as well as ensuring continuity as students and teachers transition between schools.
Account Set-Up and Support: identified eligible students and added them and their educators to the account rosters.
Assigning Books: created Reading Lists of required textbooks and other books for each grade level and/or assigned individual books to students.
Training and Professional Development: provided one-on-one sessions, classroom demonstrations, virtual workshops, and in-person presentations at staff meetings to special educators, general educators, librarians, paraprofessionals, and students to help familiarize them with Bookshare’s features and functionalities.
Bookshare Awareness: communicated about Bookshare via department websites, district newsletters, and email lists to ensure all staff in the district knew about Bookshare and that it was not just a tool for students in special education with IEP’s or 504 plans.
Parent Engagement: engaged parents by providing information that supports their children’s use of Bookshare at home with instructions on accessing the platform, reading books, and adding free Individual Memberships to school accounts.
Get Started!
Want to support more students in your district with Bookshare? Incorporate some, or all these best practices that helped these successful districts support more students with Bookshare. Need a Bookshare refresher? Review the following links:
ABC’s of Bookshare for Educators
For more in-depth training on accessible educational materials please review the new, free online training module from Bookshare and the Iris Center. Bookshare: Providing Accessible Materials for Students with Print Disabilities Option to receive two hours of Professional Development: