Public/Private Partnership Creatively Employs Music To Improve Early Childhood Literacy In Chicago

Education Couture, NFP and Kuumba Enterprises combine their capacities to use music to help children learn to read in Chicago and read to learn about Chicago.

CHICAGO, IL, UNITED STATES, September 4, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Ruckiya Ross and Querida Flores are the forces behind Education Couture who have created a proprietary literacy strategy they call Reading Music. Patricia A. Rogers and Eric Z. Williams are the forces behind Kuumba Enterprises who have created Music Video Book Trailers for the stories they write about Chicago's iconic nicknames. Importantly, both organizations recognize that music is instrumental in changing Chicago's sobering literacy landscape, where two-thirds of fourth-grade students did not demonstrate proficiency in English language arts on the 2025 Illinois Assessment of Readiness. For Education Coutre and Kuumba, that statistic represents both an urgent challenge and an opportunity to reimagine how young learners experience literacy-- meeting them through something they already know, understand, and love: music.

Ross, in particular, implemented speech-language therapy to both general education students and diverse learner populations in Chicago Public Schools before she realized the need to develop a unique early literacy acceleration and intervention program that strengthens foundational reading skills through engaging, music-based instruction. Now both she and Flores combine music and the science of reading to open the world of literacy to Pre-K – 4th  graders in Chicago. The Education Couture Model not only teaches students how to read but also works to increase their desire to learn.

While proprietary, the instructional video on their website located at www.educouture.org chimes rhymes like, “Words, Syllables, Sounds, It’s Time To Break Them Down, Every Word Has A Syllable, Every Syllable Has a Vowel Sound…” Ross and Flores, say that “We use the music in the instructional videos to teach students the six key components of literacy: 1) Oral Language 2) Phonological Awareness, 3) Phonics 4) Vocabulary 5) Fluency and 6) Comprehension.”

Rogers has a degree in counseling psychology and practices as a licensed professional counselor while co-writing songs and stories with Williams to motivate children ages 3-10 to read early and often. Under the pen name or pseudonym, Ima Kidd, their Chicago Kidz Book Series uses rhythm and rhyme to “edutain” students and the adults who love to read with them. Rogers is the primary creative artist behind the multi-media strategies used to produce Music Video Book Trailers for each Kuumba Enterprise publication.

Williams has ideated most of the stories in the nickname series, beginning with “The Envy of the Winds: How Chicago Became Known as the Windy City,” which he initially co-wrote with his 10-year-old son while serving as an educator in the Chicago Public Schools. However, it was Rogers who wrote the lyrics for the song in the music video which starts, “The Envy of The Winds is about the Windy City, all of the winds competed with envy!”

Rogers has also started ideating the next stories in The Chicago Kidz Series about visits to other cities across the nation and world (or their Road Trip Series). Williams says that he may take the lead in creating the songs for the Music Video Trailers that will accompany those books. As the Chicago Kidz series continues to expand, connecting with Education Couture to use music to enhance early childhood literacy will be a major priority.

Education Couture and Kuumba Enterprises have collaborated on projects that include Literacy and Story Time events for students and parents at different bookstores in Chicago like Burst Into Books in Roseland and Open Books in Pilsen. They are planning new collaborations that may include Residencies at Childcare Centers and Consultations at Public and Private Elementary Schools in Chicago

To reach Education Couture, contact Querida Flores at q.flores@educouture.org and to explore more about The Chicago Kidz go to www.thechicagokidz.com

Patricia Rogers
Kuumba Enterprises LLC
+1 708-261-6042
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