New initiative aims to boost family literacy in Bibb County

Jim Montgomery, the Executive Director of the Macon-Bibb Mayor's Literacy Alliance, says the initiative will implement a family learning system in Macon.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Macon-Bibb Mayor’s Literacy Alliance (MBMLA) says it’s taking a two-generational approach to improve literacy rates for students in the county.

MBMLA announced a new initiative – Family Literacy: Reading and Beyond – with the help of a $10,000 grant from the National Center for Families Learning. Jim Montgomery, the Executive Director of MBMLA, says the initiative will implement a family learning system in Macon.

“It’s kind of obvious that there’s a need to improve literacy in Macon only because of how students are performing, and our dropout rate,” Montgomery said. 

In 2024, Georgia Milestones results found that 45% of students in the district were reading at grade level or above, and the graduation rate was 87%. Makeba Rogers, Family Engagement Coordinator for the Bibb County School District, applauded the initiative, saying it’s important to only further the education of students, but those raising them as well.

“We need to be able to move past differences and be inclusive,” Rogers said. 

Rogers says low-income families across the district can feel as if they aren’t good enough to be a part of their child’s learning process. She says strengthening literacy across generations will help defeat the “us versus them” mindset that exists.

“Just simply feeling like they are part of the system,” Rogers said. “That they are a part of the work, that we are partnering to the level in which we are seeing the needle move as far as our children academically.” 

MBMLA held three community input sessions Thursday to discuss challenges facing the county and how to best implement the family learning system. Montgomery says the organization will use this feedback and conduct more research to determine what areas of Macon are most in need.

We’re in the process now of culminating our strategic planning process where we’ve set metrics to all of the action steps that we have,” Montgomery said. “And we’ll be taking a look at the data to determine what steps we need to take next to make improvement.”