Our Company
Most secondary students can read the words but struggle with the meaning. Zinc exists to change that with explicit strategy instruction and motivating, student-driven practice.
What Zinc does:
Places students at the right reading level using a fast assessment
Teaches the core strategies behind true comprehension
Gives students real topics they care about, building confidence and stamina
Zinc’s founder and former English teacher Matt Bardin shares how Zinc helps secondary students build reading stamina—and actually enjoy reading.
Our Story
The amount of 16- to 24-year-olds reading at the lowest literacy levels increased from 16% in 2017 to 25% in 2023, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Secondary students don’t lack ability; they lack strategy. Matt Bardin, a former middle and high school English teacher from New York City, created Zinc Learning Labs to explicitly teach comprehension strategies in an engaging way that teachers can implement easily. Built by educators, refined by classroom results, driven by mission.