Reading Partners shift: TPS’ loss is Union Public Schools’ gain

The national nonprofit Reading Partners is now recruiting 1,000 community volunteers for its significant expansion to serve elementary school students in Tulsa’s Union school district.

This comes just a few months after the end of Tulsa Public Schools’ long-standing partnership with the organization.

“We will definitely take advantage of this opportunity,” said Theresa Kiger, executive director of elementary education at Union Public Schools. “I am looking at data that shows 100% of our kids in kindergarten through second grade met their individual reading goals last year in Reading Partners.

“We are amazed at the growth our children are making, and we welcome all of the volunteers from TPS to come to Union. We have students that are just as in need.”

Financial constraints and inconsistent buy-in for the program among individual school site leaders were cited by TPS officials in announcing the elimination of Reading Partners programming for 626 students and the significant reduction of two other nonprofits’ services in that district in April.

But Kiger said Union’s student achievement data for the 232 students who were served by Reading Partners in 2024-25 shows that the one-on-one tutoring sessions are having a significant effect on helping fledgling readers overcome the challenges many children experience while learning how to read.

That’s why district leaders and Reading Partners officials have set a goal of increasing the number of Union students to be served more than 200% — to at least 720 in 2025-26.

And the number of Union elementary schools with Reading Partners tutoring is set to expand from six to 10 this year and then to all 13 elementary sites in 2026-27.

“All of our elementary schools want to partner with Reading Partners,” Kiger said. “The reason for the gradual expansion is that our goal is to build a really strong relationship with our partners, so we understand each other’s needs and our ultimate goal of putting the needs of every child first.

“We meet several times a year to review our data and to see whether we need more volunteers and whether we can serve more students.

“I believe that’s why we have had success with Reading Partners at Union. You have to work at the partnership and listen and work together to make things better.”

It helps that Union and Reading Partners both use the same Star Reading assessment, which measures each child’s reading comprehension and skills, and that the district’s curriculum and Reading Partners literacy model are both based on scientific-backed strategies, including phonics.

Volunteers need no formal training, only the willingness to tutor in person at a local school or to tutor a local student in an online session if that is more convenient. The minimum age is 14, and volunteers must pass a criminal background check.

Tutors can choose one or two one-hour tutoring sessions per week, with a variety of time slots available during school hours.

“As a volunteer, you are given the opportunity to invest yourself, your experiences and your ability to listen and nurture a child in their reading development. You don’t need to be a teacher,” Kiger said. “It is about building a relationship with a child, reading books together.

“The curriculum is set up in a very easy, organized manner, so pick up right where you left off in your last session.

“And students are a part of creating their own reading goal. As they achieve their goal, we talk to them about increasing that goal. That is a huge benefit of having a partner in setting individual goals, achieving those goals and then setting a new goal. That is really a life skill that they are learning.”

Reading Partners is seeking volunteers for these 10 Union elementary schools during the upcoming school year: Boevers, Roy Clark, Darnaby, Jarman, Jefferson, McAuliffe, Moore, Ellen Ochoa, Rosa Parks and Peters.

Olivia Martin, executive director of Reading Partners Tulsa, said she hopes word gets out to every former Reading Partners volunteer from TPS and many new volunteers who want to make a real and measurable difference in the community and in the lives of children.

“One of the things we are trying to navigate is some people have a perceived notion of Union that it is very suburban,” Martin said. “But Union students are 75% free and reduced (rate) lunch (based on lower household economic income status). Many students in Union speak Spanish or another language, as do their parents. The kids all over Tulsa, in all of our communities, need our help with literacy.

“We already have several hundred of our volunteers who have already committed to moving over to Union. That is very encouraging. We are hoping to start tutoring in mid-to-late September.”

Reading Partners also has opportunities for companies and organizations to spend a service or team-building day engaged in tutoring on a single day.

“We can bring a group in on a Friday. We offer a brief training and doughnuts, and then volunteers provide two (tutoring) sessions, typically makeup sessions for students who were absent or got behind in their sessions,” Martin said. “That’s a way for more people to get involved and learn how Reading Partners works.”

A Reading Partners tutoring session consists of not only reading a developmentally appropriate book together but also activities and simple games that home in on the specific challenges the student is having with phonics, decoding or sounding out words from basic letter sounds, vocabulary words and comprehension.

“We always have the highest literacy growth rates of any region in the national organization, and that’s because the program team here is amazing and we have great tutors in Tulsa,” said Martin. “Oklahoma’s big 50th-in-the-nation ranking is a call not just for Reading Partners but for all community members to feel a responsibility for our kids and their future.”

To learn more or volunteer, go to readingpartners.org/volunteer or call 918-949-1979.