🛝 Children’s Books, Parents Finding Jobs, Giving Students $50 Per Week

Welcome to Playground Post, a bi-weekly newsletter that keeps education innovators ahead of what's next.

Here's what we have on deck for today…

• Cultural book moments for kids

• Turning parents into job-getters

• Giving students $50 per week

Why Dog Man Matters More Than Your Literacy Curriculum

Seventeen years after The Hunger Games first hit shelves, kids are still obsessed with Panem. This fall, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Partypooper drops on October 21, followed by Dog Man: Big Jim Believes on November 11. These are more than just book releases, they're cultural moments that get kids talking, sharing, and yes, reading.

Here's what most literacy programs miss: when a major kids' book drops, social media explodes with reactions, libraries field massive waitlists, and children who normally avoid reading suddenly become voracious consumers.

Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid series has become a rite of passage, while Dav Pilkey's Dog Man has redefined what children's books can be with its comic-style storytelling.

But too many schools treat these phenomena like distractions instead of opportunities. They stick to curriculum readers while kids are having passionate discussions about characters they actually care about.

The smartest education innovators will build tools that harness these cultural book moments and build bridges between popular series and deeper literacy skills instead of forcing kids to choose between what they love and what they're supposed to learn.

This Title 1 School Used Tech to Turn Parents Into Job-Getters

When the pandemic hit Guilford Preparatory Academy in North Carolina, their PTA events vanished and family-school connections crumbled. So they created "Jaguar Jam,” a community event that transformed their gym into vendor tables run by students and their hallways into tech training centers.

The results were immediate and tangible. 25 families walked away with free laptops and coaching on homework portals. In the resume workshop, parents learned to build digital profiles and navigate job platforms using school computers.

Six parents landed full-time jobs after the workshop, including one woman who said past mistakes would keep her from stable work, and she now holds the highest-paying job of her life.

Students also benefited. A middle school student proudly displayed phone cases she designed using digital tools while her mother beamed with pride. A fifth grader ran a cotton candy stand and tracked sales using a budgeting app from tech class.

Innovators can build platforms that help schools turn family engagement events into skill-building workshops, creating tools that enable students to showcase their tech skills while teaching parents.

What Happens When You Give Students $50 a Week? They Actually Show Up to School.

Researchers in New Orleans and Indianapolis tried something radical: they gave 200 high school students $50 a week with zero strings attached. The only requirement? Stay enrolled in school.

The results were immediate. Students in the experimental group missed 1.23 fewer days of school compared to their peers who only got a $10 Amazon gift card monthly. One school leader put it simply: "They're not worrying about basic necessities, and it shows. They're showing up more, and they're happier."

Students spent the money in ways adults would find very familiar:

• 45% on food and groceries

• 35% on retail and services

• 12% on transportation

They used it for college application fees, prom dresses, and gas money. The average student saved $300 over the school year, which is about 15% of what they received.

"When you're in poverty, your brain is obsessed with 'How am I going to make ends meet?'" says researcher Stacia West. "It leaves you unable to make forward economic momentum because you're hyper-focused on survival."

Josie Jones, who lived on her own during senior year, used the money as backup when her coffee shop paychecks ran short. "I learned how to keep money where it needed to be, rather than just spending it on Starbucks."

The experiment is now expanding to 1,600 students across 12 New Orleans charter schools, with plans to track outcomes for four years after graduation.

Education innovators have an opportunity to build platforms that help schools implement similar financial support programs, create tools that connect basic needs support with attendance tracking, or develop financial literacy curricula that work with real money rather than hypothetical scenarios.

We'll be back with another edition on Friday. See you then!

To stay up-to-date on all things education innovation, visit us at playgroundpost.com.