As 2020 comes to a close, are you looking at the glass half full, or depending on the day half empty after almost a year of surviving the pandemic? In 2021, millions of American families will continue to struggle to put food on the table, while others will have children set up, sitting up, and eager to join virtual classmates and teachers, in Zoom classrooms across this nation. If they have access to the internet and equity in education — that’s a big, powerful word — if. And if not now, when?

According to research from Gallup and the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, low adult literacy rates could be costing the U.S. economy $2.2 trillion in GDP. The research found that roughly 130 million adults in the U.S. are "reading below the equivalent of a sixth grade level." Reading levels in grade school-aged children have been stagnating and even dropping off. In 2019, national average reading scores for fourth and eighth graders were slightly below average reading scores in 2017.

Whether we look at the data on our failing education systems as a travesty of justice or from the lens of an economist astounded by the loss of human capital, there are questions we should be asking. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome, we should apply this principle to our education efforts.

As nonprofit leaders, we have the immense responsibility to redefine and rethink how we approach our education initiatives. I challenge you as leaders to rethink how we provide sustainable systems change, starting with acknowledging that our efforts are dramatically diminished if we continue to work in silos. Collaboration, partnerships and coalitions offer us opportunities to strengthen our impact by harnessing the power and resources our fellow nonprofits have to offer.

As leaders in the education space, let's commit to supporting the best of both proven and innovative ways of approaching this generation’s national epidemic of illiteracy.

Read the full article about education innovation by Deb Mallin at Forbes.