October 14, 2013
Reading Partners Dallas Nearly Doubles; Expands to 17 Elementary Schools Within DISD
Leading national literacy program commits to recruit and train volunteer reading tutors to serve 650 students in low-income communities over the course of the 2013-14 academic year
Dallas, TX – October 14, 2013 – National education nonprofit organization Reading Partners announced its expansion to 17 elementary school campuses within the Dallas Independent School District. The program plans to serve 650 elementary school students reading six months to two-and-a-half years behind grade level. Reading Partners is a highly effective literacy program, offering children one-on-one tutoring with a community volunteer.
In Reading Partners’ first full program implementation year in Dallas, 457 community volunteer tutors provided more than 9,000 hours of one-on-one tutoring lessons. Reading Partners served on 10 elementary school campuses during the 2012-13 academic year and has now added 7 new elementary schools in South and West Dallas.
Please visit the Reading Partners website and view the confirmed list of 2013-14 Reading Partners schools.
“Reading Partners is excited to be part of a community-wide movement to equip students with the reading skills they need to succeed both in school and in life,” said Reading Partners Dallas Executive Director Kaitlin Guthrow. “Aided by a strong partnership with Dallas ISD, we’re working to ensure that elementary school students in Dallas – no matter their background – have the opportunity to lead happy, healthy, and successful lives.”
Working in schools in low-income communities, Reading Partners transforms a dedicated space into a Reading Center, complete with a library and teaching tools managed by a full-time staff member. Reading Partners collaborates with teachers and principals to identify students reading six months to two-and-a-half years below grade level, and provide them with personalized literacy instruction.
Reading Partners recruits and trains community volunteers to provide weekly one-on-one literacy tutoring using its research-based curriculum, a series of structured lesson plans that progress from phonics instructions for younger students to higher order comprehension strategies for older students.
Reading Partners sees demonstrable results in the reading skills of students in its program. In the 2012-13 school year, 90 percent of Dallas Reading Partners increased their monthly rates of literacy learning. Before enrollment last year, Reading Partners students gained an average of only 0.6 months of reading skills for every month in the classroom. By the end of the year with Reading Partners, students gain an average of 1.6 months of reading skills per month, more than doubling their rate of learning and catching up to their on-grade peers.
To become a volunteer tutor with Reading Partners and help a child experience the joy and power of reading, please visit the Reading Partners website.
About Reading Partners
Reading Partners is a national education nonprofit organization that provides volunteer-led, one-on-one literacy tutoring to K-5 students at low-income elementary schools. Reading Partners has an 89% success rate improving students’ reading skills. At each school site, Reading Partners transforms a dedicated space into a reading center and recruits a corps of 40-100 community volunteers who work directly with students. Volunteers are trained and supported by site coordinators to use a highly structured and research-validated curriculum to work one-on-one with students who have fallen behind in reading. To learn more, visit www.readingpartners.org.
Media Contact:
Joe Ventura
joe.ventura@readingpartners.org
(510) 830-3035
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