September 19, 2018
Reading Partners Unveils Outstanding Student Results in Tulsa in 2017-18, Celebrates its 20th Year of Nationwide Impact
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Jessica Risenhoover
Director of External Relations, Reading Partners Tulsa
918-521-2268 | jessica.risenhoover@
READING PARTNERS UNVEILS OUTSTANDING STUDENT RESULTS IN TULSA IN 2017-2018, CELEBRATES ITS 20TH YEAR OF NATIONWIDE IMPACT
The early literacy nonprofit looks for more community tutors in 2018-19
(Tulsa, OK) September 19, 2018
Student results in 2017-18 continued a strong trend for Reading Partners Tulsa, where 1,522 students were matched with 1,564 community volunteers at 26 reading centers who delivered nearly 46,000 tutoring sessions. Among Reading Partners’ youngest students in Tulsa, 90% are developing mastery of key foundational reading skills needed to read at grade level. Learn more about Reading Partners’ impact in Tulsa here.
“These positive results are strong indicators that Reading Partners students are gaining the skills needed to read on grade-level,” said Justin Harlan, Executive Director of Reading Partners Tulsa. “With these results, our partnership with Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) and strong community support, our hope is that we’ll continue to broaden our reach, and impact more of the 77 percent of TPS students who are reading below proficient levels.”
More volunteers needed in Tulsa in the 2018-19 school year
There are nearly nine million low-income K-5 students in the US, including thousands in Tulsa, who are not yet reading at grade level. Without developing the literacy skills needed to read at grade level, these children do not have an equitable chance to succeed in school or in life. Each new volunteer that Reading Partners engages helps more students develop the foundational reading skills needed to power their learning in all other subjects in school.
In the 2018-19 school year, Reading Partners aims to match 2,000 community volunteers with 1,600 struggling readers in Tulsa. By tutoring a student one-on-one for as little as one hour a week, volunteers can make an impact that can quite literally alter the course of a child’s educational experience and life.
The positive student results highlighted in the 2017-18 impact reports are made possible through the generous participation of hundreds of community volunteers, like Christina de Silva.
“Reading Partners is a very efficient and effective way that volunteers can help children grow in their reading skills,” said da Silva, Director of Community Development and Policy at the City of Tulsa. “They offer all the tools and books you would need to make sure your student is progressing.”
To become a volunteer with Reading Partners, please visit readingpartners.org/volunteer today.
Reading Partners celebrates 20 years of nationwide impact
The 2018-19 academic school year marks Reading Partners’ 20th anniversary of bringing community volunteers into schools to provide essential one-on-one literacy tutoring that empowers students to succeed in school and beyond. Over the past two decades, the organization has grown from supporting a handful of students at one school into a national literacy nonprofit supporting more than 11,000 students at 200 schools across the US every year.
“Reading is critical and equitable education needs to be a norm, not a luxury,” said Karine Apollon, CEO, Reading Partners. “This is a solvable problem and one that Reading Partners has been successfully tackling for 20 years. Last school year alone, our organization mobilized over 12,000 volunteers in communities across the country to tackle one of the nation’s greatest issues, one student at a time, and our personalized literacy approach continues to show strong results.”
A 20-year track record of student and community impact
Only 20 percent of economically disadvantaged students in the US are reading proficiently by fourth grade. For students entering fourth grade, it is essential to have made the switch from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn.’ Most subjects, including history, science and math, all require literacy in order to progress. Over the past two decades, Reading Partners has engaged nearly 55,000 community tutors and over 1,300 AmeriCorps members to provide one-on-one literacy tutoring to more than 50,000 students attending over 350 public schools in nearly 75 school districts across the country. All told, Reading Partners volunteers have delivered more than 1.5 million tutoring sessions, helping students grow their reading skills and confidence at a critical stage in their education.
About Reading Partners
For 20 years, Reading Partners has empowered students to succeed in reading and in life by engaging community volunteers to provide one-on-one tutoring. Since its founding, the national nonprofit organization has mobilized nearly 55,000 community volunteers to provide proven, individualized literacy tutoring to more than 50,000 elementary school students in under-resourced schools across ten states and the District of Columbia. Visit readingpartners.org to learn more about our program impact, or connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn,Twitter, and Instagram.
