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July 23, 2013

2012-13 Reading Partners Student Performance Results

As Reading Partners’ students narrow their achievement gaps, futures brighten.

When Reading Partners (then YES Reading) first opened its doors in 1999, our founders had a bold vision for the future of education. They imagined a world in which students from all socio-economic backgrounds had the capacity to chart their own futures, equipped with the critical tool of literacy. They knew the value of individualized instruction – and the friendship, mentorship, and inspiration that a tutor can provide a child. And they believed in the power of community involvement to make it all happen.

Since 1999, we’ve grown from a single school in Menlo Park, CA, serving a few dozen students, to over 100 schools serving over 5,500 students. In just the past five years, we’ve increased the number of students served five-fold, up from 1,000 students.

Despite the meteoric growth we’ve experienced, Reading Partners has remained committed to the quality instruction that inspired our founders all those years ago. In the 2012-2013 school year:

  • 88% of our students accelerated their rate of learning in reading.
  • Prior to enrollment in Reading Partners, most of our students were only gaining about 0.6 months of literacy skills for each month of classroom instruction. The average Reading Partners participant nearly tripled that rate, gaining 1.6 months by the end of the year.
  • 72% of students narrowed their literacy gaps with their peers who read at grade level.

View student performance results for:

San Francisco/East Bay Sacramento New York
Silicon Valley Colorado Baltimore
Los Angeles Dallas Washington, DC

As students bridge their gaps, they get closer and closer to taking charge of their futures – and that is empowering.

But what makes Reading Partners special – and what we’ve seen happen time and again this year – is that our program, which focuses on the individual student, has transformative effects on both the school and community as a whole. Having the Reading Partners program has a ripple effect in schools – 92% of principals reported school-wide improvement of reading progress, and 98% of principals and teachers believed that Reading Partners was a valuable asset to their school. With over 7,000 dedicated volunteer tutors nationwide, we’re well on our way to addressing the reading achievement gap with a community solution.

So, as we look toward the 2013-14 school year, we continue to pursue our founders’ vision of a simple act of volunteerism creating daring change. As we grow to new regions and new schools, we’ll remain dedicated to the individual students, the school, and the community – and the magic that happens when we bring them together.

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