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Overview

The Reading Partners program focuses on children from low-income communities who are struggling with reading. Working with partner schools, the program offers children one-on-one tutoring with a caring volunteer who is dedicated to one child's success.

Teachers refer English speaking, K-6 students who have fallen behind six months to two years in reading to Reading Partners. Once enrolled, students receive tutoring twice a week in 45-minute sessions.

Students who were once struggling in many subjects not only become proud, confident readers, but also transform into children excited about learning and succeeding.

   

Need

Reading is the gateway skill:

  • Being able to read is integrally tied to succeeding in every subject in school, including math and science.

  • Children who are behind in reading often have low confidence in their ability to learn, miss out on the joy of learning and decline to participate in the classroom.

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Results

Reading Achievement:

  • On average, students jump an entire grade level in reading skills after only 30 hours of Reading Partners tutoring.

  • Students advance, on average, two and a half times faster than before they had intervention from Reading Partners.

    • In 2007/2008, based on pre- and post-assessments, on average, students entered the program progressing at a rate of approximately a half a year for every year in school and finished the program progressing at a rate equivalent to one and half years for every year in school.

    • What's important about this rate of improvement is that it means students are gaining ground and breaking the vicious cycle of falling farther and farther behind. For the first time, students are improving at a rate that puts them on the road to proficiency.

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How We're Different

One-on-One Tutoring & Mentoring:
When students come to Reading Partners, they get individualized reading instruction by a trained volunteer twice a week.  Teachers agree that students thrive with the caring attention of one person who serves as both tutor and role model.

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Curriculum

Volunteers work with Reading Partners' structured curriculum to help students gain multiple literacy skills and concepts.

Developed by Education Specialists:
The curriculum was developed by educational specialists at Reading Partners in consultation with the faculty and graduate students at the Stanford School of Education and is based on best teaching practices, grade-level requirements and a balanced-literacy approach. The Reading Partners curriculum meets the content standards set by the California Department of Education.

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Success Stories

First Grader Transforms Tears to Smiles
Parents, teachers, and Ms. Redfern's first-grade class sat in the audience waiting to see students like Ashley perform at the annual Reading Partners recital.  When it was Ashley's turn, she strutted to the front of the audience, announced her name, and began reading from "A Garden." No one from the back of the room needed to ask Ashley to speak up.  She read like a ham.  Every time she'd finish reading a page, she'd pause, look at her audience adoringly, and hold the book up like a teacher to show everyone the pictures on the page.

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Request a Program

Reading Partners School Interest Form

If you would like Reading Partners to consider your school for a Reading Partners center, please fill out the requested information below. We will contact you shortly once we receive your interest form.

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