September 12, 2023
Reading Partners is ramping up innovation in 2023-24 to expand literacy access and educational equity
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Michael Todd
National Managing Director of Marketing & Communications, Reading Partners
(415) 225-9139 | michael.todd@readingpartners.org
READING PARTNERS IS RAMPING UP INNOVATION IN 2023-24 TO EXPAND LITERACY ACCESS AND EDUCATIONAL EQUITY
National nonprofit delivered nearly 170,000 one-on-one tutoring sessions and over 140,000 books to thousands of students last year
OAKLAND, California – September 12, 2023 — While Reading Partners’ online tutoring platform, Reading Partners Connects, was largely developed to help support students during the pandemic, the national nonprofit organization has teamed with Amazon Web Services and Quantiphi, Inc. to make its online tutoring even more interactive and to broaden the reach of the program through national and community partnerships.
“At Reading Partners, we believe reading is a civil right and that all students are capable of incredible achievements when they have access to the educational resources and opportunities they deserve,” CEO Adeola Whitney said. “We know that the ability to read transforms lives and empowers children and families to thrive which is why we are so invested in mobilizing communities to support early literacy through our in-person and online tutoring programs as well as through innovations and partnerships we are developing to expand our reach and impact in the months and years to come.”
Another new initiative Reading Partners has been focused on is writing and publishing original books to be used in its own curriculum. COVER to COVER is a new book series that enables Reading Partners to develop content that is aligned with the science of reading as well as the scope and sequence of the organization’s online and in-person curricula. The stories include representative characters and themes so all students can see themselves reflected in the books they read while also having the opportunity to learn about the world around them through other people’s backgrounds, cultures, and life experiences.
2022-23 results highlight the literacy progress of Reading Partners’ students
In the 2022-23 school year, Reading Partners continued to provide critical literacy support to students, schools, and communities across the country. In fact, the nonprofit provided one-on-one literacy tutoring to 13% more students in the 2022-23 school year than the prior year. Each year, Reading Partners publishes reports highlighting student performance for the national organization and for each of its 12 respective regions across the country. The national impact report for the 2022-23 school year has recently been posted on readingpartners.org and includes the following highlights:
- 6,068 students received 12+ sessions of one-on-one tutoring
- 169,604 total tutoring sessions were delivered to those same students
- 27% of sessions were delivered online via Reading Partners Connects
- 7,405 community tutors supported students
- 143,488 books were distributed to students through the “Take Reading With You” program
- 82% of all Reading Partners students finished the year meeting or exceeding their primary end-of-year literacy growth goals
- 85% of K-2 Reading Partners students were developing mastery of key foundational reading skills needed to read and grade level
- Learn about Reading Partners’ national impact here.
Volunteer support will help drive student impact
Heading into the new school year, Reading Partners anticipates needing thousands of community volunteers to support students’ literacy development. Please follow this link if you’re interested in investing one hour a week to help empower a student through reading.
Reading Partners also gets help from AmeriCorps members to train and provide ongoing support to literacy volunteers. Please follow this link if you’re interested in becoming an AmeriCorps member at Reading Partners.
A student uses Reading Partners Connects to work one-on-one with a volunteer tutor on a lesson (Photo Credit: Reading Partners)
An AmeriCorps member and a student in a reading center engaging in Reading Partners’ traditional tutoring program (Photo Credit: Reading Partners)
A Reading Partners AmeriCorps member (Photo Credit: Reading Partners)
A volunteer tutor and a student in a reading center engaging in Reading Partners’ traditional tutoring program (Photo Credit: Reading Partners)
Images of Reading Partners’ new COVER to COVER book series
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About Reading Partners
For nearly 25 years, Reading Partners has helped empower students to succeed in school and beyond by engaging community volunteers to provide proven, one-on-one literacy tutoring. Since its founding, the national nonprofit organization has mobilized over 80,000 community volunteers to provide more than 2.7 million individualized literacy tutoring sessions to more than 75,000 elementary school students in over 500 under-resourced schools across ten states and the District of Columbia. Visit readingpartners.org to learn more about our program impact and our Reading Partners Connects online program innovation, or connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Reading Partners is a proud AmeriCorps service partner and has been endorsed by The New York Times and featured on The TODAY Show and GMA.
