Laundromats are playing an unlikely role in the effort to shrink America's literacy gap

As the cost of early childcare education reaches unsustainable levels for many families, advocates are working to support, teach, and validate the informal caregivers, including relatives, friends, and neighbors, who continue to fill in the gaps. Minneapolis, where an estimated 70 percent of preschool-aged children are cared for by family members or friends, is one city leading the charge.

Recognizing the barriers posed by lack of access to adequate transportation, a preschool in Portsmouth opened a second location next to the Housing Authority's Gosling Meadows neighborhood. “If you build it, they will come,” one teacher said. “Well we built it, and they came.”

A comprehensive effort by civic and business leaders to expand access to preschool education in Charlotte-Mecklenburg county resulted in a property tax that pays for high-quality preschool. The program is now serving over 600 students in 33 pulic pre-K classrooms.

Philadelphia looks to Oklahoma and New York City to close the achievement gap for kids from low-income areas. Both Oklahoma and NYC have implemented universal Pre-Kindergarten programs and have increased kindergarten readiness levels for children attending pre-school -- including children from disadvantaged communities that otherwise would not be able to attend.

Gus the Bus, Magic Bus, El Busesito, and other traveling classrooms are working to fill the persistent preschool gap in Colorado's childcare deserts. Most days the mobile preschools park near apartment complexes or mobile home parks and offer instruction to neighborhood children. In the coming years, providers hope to be able to use the same quality ratings as stationary schools and expand from rural areas into Denver and other urban centers throughout the state.

Steele Academy is "Montessori education for students who don't normally get it," according to Laura Christenberry, the driver behind San Antonio's first public Montessori school. Drawing on detailed census information, leaders at the combined preschool and kindergarten ensure that 50 percent of the population comes from the bottom of the income spectrum. Now, the challenge is building trust and making a diverse group of families aware of the nontraditional model.

In rural North Carolina, an organization holds bi-monthly playgroups to teach parents about the importance of "basic interactions between parents and their kids." Based on the principle of "child-directed play," the research-backed programming allows parents to connect and share and helps students prepare for the unfamiliar social setting of kindergarten.

Since 2014, low-income parents who enroll their children in Indiana's state grant program, On My Way Pre-K, have watched their students gain important literacy skills and self-confidence. However, only four percent of the state's qualifying four year olds currently participate in the initiative. Teachers are now brainstorming strategies to eliminate barriers to parents applying for the funding.

In New Mexico, public libraries are funded by municipalities. That means, if you live in an unincorporated town, there’s no funding stream for a local public library. But, in northern New Mexico, residents in several towns have joined together to create independent libraries that have transformed their communities.

Through the Hill-top Creative Arts Foundation, teen writers in Nigeria receive mentorship from established writers and learn to give critique and be critiqued by their peers, with the ultimate goal of helping them become published authors.