Milwaukee · NBA partnership
Milwaukee Bucks x
Rhymes With Reason
The Bucks are helping Milwaukee middle school students build literacy skills and academic confidence through music.
Explore the partnership
Partnership snapshot
Students impacted
Schools · St. Augustine Prep
Wisconsin
New-word classroom goal
The Assignment
Who
Middle school students at St. Augustine Preparatory Academy.
The plan
Use music-powered vocabulary learning, with Bucks team experiences and mascot Bango as rewards for classroom progress.
The goal
Build literacy skills and academic confidence. A class average of 100 or more new words learned is one reward target.
The Milwaukee Bucks are helping middle school students across the city improve literacy skills and academic confidence with Rhymes with Reason, an educational technology program that uses popular music to make vocabulary learning engaging.
The partnership brings program access to 250 students at St. Augustine Preparatory Academy. The Bucks also offer opportunities to meet team personalities, including mascot Bango.
Students can work together toward earning rewards, including by reaching classroom average of 100 or more new vocabulary words learned. That figure is a target for earning rewards, not a reported learning outcome.
The Bucks aim to increase enthusiasm for classroom activities and support academic progress and self-esteem.
Impact in Progress
Reported reach · Learning results pending
Students impacted
Partner schools
Words learned
Reading outcomes
Partnership in Action
Music-powered learning and Bucks team experiences in Milwaukee.
Learning results
Reading and vocabulary outcomes have not been provided.
About St. Augustine Prep
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
St. Augustine Prep has used Rhymes with Reason since 2022 and has seen steady growth from students each year. 7th grade students who participated in Rhymes With Reason at have surpassed the school’s NWEA MAP reading benchmarks of 65% for three consecutive school years, with increasing numbers of students exceeding the mark.
Bring this to your community
Partner with Rhymes with Reason to bring music-powered vocabulary learning to more students.