Hillsborough County's reading scores are climbing but still lag the state average, and a music-based literacy program already used in district classrooms is available free to qualifying families as Lennard High School, East Bay High School and Apollo Beach K-8 open for the 2026-27 school year on Monday, Aug. 10.

Sing Out and READ, known as SOAR, runs a 12-week program for children ages 6 to 12 that combines songs, repetition and interactive quizzes on a tablet. Children who complete it typically improve by one to two reading grade levels, according to Arlene Score, the organization's director of administration, in a WUSF interview published Wednesday, Aug. 5.

The program works like this: students listen to a song three times, sing it five times, then take a keyword quiz. They must score at least 80% to advance. Each level includes at least 10 songs ranging from nursery rhymes like "Jack and Jill" to original music written specifically for literacy development.

"They listen to a song three times, and then they sing it themselves five times," Score told WUSF. "At the end of their fifth time, they take a quiz because there are keywords that the children need to learn while they're singing their song."

Over 12 weeks, students complete a minimum of 900 minutes of lessons, roughly 90 minutes per week. Some Hillsborough County schools have built the program directly into their curriculum, with teachers working alongside students individually.

The district's grades 3-8 reading proficiency on the 2025-26 FAST assessment rose from 53% to 58%, according to an analysis of state data, but Hillsborough still trails the statewide average of about 61%. Florida law requires students to demonstrate reading proficiency by the end of third grade to be promoted to fourth grade.

Founder Carlo Franzblau, who holds a BA and MBA from Harvard, first tested the underlying software in a Hillsborough County middle school in fall 2006. He and his wife Beth launched the nonprofit in 2019 after news coverage exposed low reading scores among Pinellas County students. The program has since reached more than 30,000 students across over 1,000 schools in the United States, the Bahamas and Australia, according to the organization's website.

No South Shore school has been publicly identified as a current SOAR partner. According to a 2022 report from 83 Degrees Media, Hillsborough campuses using the program at that time included Dunbar Elementary Magnet School, Tampa Bay Academy, Westshore Elementary and Robles Park Elementary. The current school list may differ.

SOAR's Family Literacy Project, called FLiP, provides the program free to at-risk students from families who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Qualifying families receive a tablet locked into the SOAR software, and students who complete the program keep the device. The app is also available for purchase through mobile app stores.

Families interested in enrolling or checking whether a South Shore school has partnered with the program can visit singoutandread.org.