“Every Child Deserves Someone Who Believes in Their Potential”: BTA Founder Joins Montgomery Public Schools for Literacy Conversation
Better Than Average (BTA) Founder L.J. Walker sat down with Montgomery Public Schools for “Stronger Together,” a conversation focused on literacy, family engagement, and what it really takes to build confident readers. The discussion reinforced something BTA has said since its earliest days: this work has never been about tutoring hours. It is about who a student becomes.
More Than a Tutoring Company
Walker traced BTA’s origin back to a simple observation made while he was still a student himself.
“Talent is everywhere in Montgomery, but opportunity isn’t always,” Walker said. He started the organization in high school after noticing bright, capable students who lacked someone to walk alongside them academically. “Every child deserves someone who believes in their potential.”
Today, BTA serves students across the Montgomery community through tutoring, reading intervention, ACT preparation, summer programming, and partnerships with schools like Montgomery Public Schools. But Walker was direct about how the organization sees itself.
“We’ve never really seen ourselves as a tutoring company,” he said. “Education isn’t simply about what students know – it’s about who they become.”
Where the Real Gap Lives
Walker’s years working directly with students shaped a conviction he returned to throughout the conversation: the gap most students face isn’t ability, it’s belief.
“A student comes in saying, ‘I’m just not good at reading,’ and a few months later that same student is reading out loud, raising their hand, asking questions,” Walker said. “Nothing about their intelligence changed. What changed is what they believe about themselves. And confidence changes everything.”
He credited the families who show up consistently, the teachers doing the daily work in classrooms, and partners like Montgomery Public Schools for sharing in that responsibility. “We just get to be one part of a much bigger team,” he said. “When this whole community pulls in the same direction for a child, that child’s future gets brighter fast.”
Naming the Real Challenge
Asked about the biggest reading challenges students face today, Walker didn’t point to a curriculum gap or a testing standard. He pointed somewhere else.
“The biggest reading challenge I see isn’t on the page – it’s in the mirror,” he said. Many students have quietly decided reading isn’t for them, often after one hard moment years earlier. But Walker was clear that the story doesn’t end there.
“There is no such thing as a child who can’t become a reader,” he said. “There are only children who haven’t been reached yet.”
Building Readers Who Become Independent Learners
Walker connected literacy to something bigger than any single subject or test. “Reading isn’t just a school skill – it’s a life skill,” he said, describing it as “the front door to everything else in education.” He also pointed to what happens once a student starts to trust their own ability to work through a hard text.
“We’re not trying to create students who need us forever – we’re trying to create learners who eventually don’t,” Walker said. “Confident learners. Independent thinkers. Future leaders. That’s the transformation we’re after.”
A Message to Montgomery Families
Walker closed the conversation with what he called the one thing he’d want every Montgomery family to hear.
“Literacy is the greatest inheritance you can give a child, and every family – every single one – is wealthy enough to give it,” he said. “You don’t need a big budget or a perfect schedule. You need fifteen minutes, a library card, and the belief that your child can become a strong reader – because they absolutely can.”
He also reminded families they aren’t carrying that work alone. “Your child is surrounded by a community that believes in them,” Walker said, “their teachers, their schools, Montgomery Public Schools, organizations like ours, neighbors and churches and businesses across this city. Student success is everyone’s responsibility.”
BTA plans to build on partnerships like this one for years to come. “Because every child deserves someone who believes in their potential,” Walker said, “and in this city, every child has a whole community of someones.”
Better Than Average (BTA) partners with families and schools across Montgomery to help students grow in confidence, skill, and independence. Learn more here.