September 10, 2019

Back to school: Reading Partners SF Bay Area calls for more community volunteers

Seeking local volunteers for the 2019-20 school year

One hour can empower! In the 2019-20 school year, Reading Partners aims to match 1,600 community volunteers with 1,550 elementary students struggling to read in the San Francisco Bay Area. By tutoring a student one-on-one for as little as an hour a week, volunteers can make an impact that can quite literally alter the course of a child’s educational experience and life.

The need is real

In San Francisco, only 36% of economically disadvantaged students are reading proficiently by the fourth grade. The nationwide trends are similar—nearly nine million elementary school students from low-income homes are unable to use reading as a foundational skill to power their learning in all subjects in school. Without developing the reading skills needed to read on grade level, students don’t have an equitable chance to succeed in school or in life. In fact, students who can’t read by fourth grade are four times more likely to not earn a high school diploma.

Reading Partners is a proven literacy program that partners with local public schools

In the 2018-19 school year, Reading Partners continued to build on its history of successfully advancing early literacy in the San Francisco Bay Area. A national nonprofit organization, Reading Partners collaborates with community volunteers and local public schools to provide students in under-resourced schools with the proven, individualized reading intervention they need to read at grade level by fourth grade. Reading Partners collaborates with teachers and principals at local public elementary schools to identify students reading behind grade level and provide them with personalized literacy instruction in a dedicated “reading center” space at their school.

2018-19 results highlight deep community impact

Each year, Reading Partners publishes student impact reports for the national organization and for each of its 13 respective regions across the country. The impact reports for the 2018-19 school year have recently been posted on readingpartners.org and include the following highlights.

• In the San Francisco Bay Area: 
  • Over 1,400 students were matched with 1,440 community volunteers at 32 partner schools who delivered nearly 38,000 tutoring sessions over the course of the year. 
  • Among Reading Partners’ youngest students in the San Francisco Bay Area, 85% are developing mastery of key foundational reading skills needed to read at grade level.
  • Based on survey responses, 100% of principals report improved school-wide reading progress, 100% of teachers report Reading Partners is valuable to their school and 95% of volunteers were satisfied with their Reading Partners experience.
  • Learn more about Reading Partners’ impact in the San Francisco Bay Area here. 
  • Learn about Reading Partners’ national impact here.

Whether it’s our principals, teachers, or volunteers, these critical partnerships are necessary to achieve this level of impact with students in the Bay Area. Partners is in our name for a reason and by working together with the community, we are able to help our students become more capable and confident readers.

said Aarika Riddle, Executive Director for Reading Partners SF Bay Area.