Reading Partners
Encyclopedia
Reading Partners is a children's literacy
nonprofit based in the San Francisco Bay Area
with programs in 26 school districts throughout California
, New York
, and Washington DC. Until August 2008, the organization was known as YES Reading.
In the 2010-11 school year, Reading Partners will serve a total of 2,900 students in 63 elementary schools.
using a structured, research-based curriculum
. The program has a success rate of nearly 90% in measurably helping students improve their progress in reading, with over 75% narrowing the achievement gap
by the end of the school year.
Teacher
s refer students struggling with reading to the campus Reading Partners program, where they receive the one-on-one attention of a trained volunteer tutor for ninety minutes each week. Tutoring sessions focus on building students’ reading skills in five critical areas of literacy: phonemic awareness, phonics
, vocabulary
, fluency
, and comprehension
. Reading Partners’ curricular materials consist of three key components, each of which address different levels of reading ability with curriculum-based, logically-sequenced materials. Upon entry into Reading Partners, every student is assessed using the Rigby PM Ultra Benchmarking Kit and placed into one of the three programs depending on the child’s individual needs.
Family outreach is a critical component of Reading Partners. Through the Home Connections program, Reading Partners works to invest parents as equal partners in their child's successful literacy development through family-centered literacy activities and Take Reading Home, a year-round book giveaway program.
when members of the community joined together to help students struggling with reading skills. At the time, fewer than 1 in 5 students at Belle Haven could read at grade level and more than 80% of students qualified for the National School Lunch Program. Starting with just three volunteers working in the school library, the organization quickly grew to serve more than 100 children at Belle Haven and began replicating to nearby Title I elementary schools.
After formally incorporating as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Reading Partners began an expansion phase, opening 60 new school programs between 2002 and 2011.
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
nonprofit based in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
with programs in 26 school districts throughout California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and Washington DC. Until August 2008, the organization was known as YES Reading.
In the 2010-11 school year, Reading Partners will serve a total of 2,900 students in 63 elementary schools.
Program
In its core program, Reading Partners operates Reading Centers at struggling elementary schools in under-served communities where children reading below grade level receive free one-on-one tutoring from volunteersVolunteering
Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity, intended to promote good or improve human quality of life, but people also volunteer for their own skill development, to meet others, to make contacts for possible employment, to have fun, and a variety of other reasons that could be...
using a structured, research-based curriculum
Curriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...
. The program has a success rate of nearly 90% in measurably helping students improve their progress in reading, with over 75% narrowing the achievement gap
Achievement gap
Achievement gap refers to the observed disparity on a number of educational measures between the performance of groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The achievement gap can be observed on a variety of measures, including standardized...
by the end of the school year.
Teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
s refer students struggling with reading to the campus Reading Partners program, where they receive the one-on-one attention of a trained volunteer tutor for ninety minutes each week. Tutoring sessions focus on building students’ reading skills in five critical areas of literacy: phonemic awareness, phonics
Phonics
Phonics refers to a method for teaching speakers of English to read and write that language. Phonics involves teaching how to connect the sounds of spoken English with letters or groups of letters and teaching them to blend the sounds of letters together to produce approximate pronunciations...
, vocabulary
Vocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
, fluency
Fluency
Fluency is the property of a person or of a system that delivers information quickly and with expertise.-Speech:...
, and comprehension
Reading comprehension
Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text. ....
. Reading Partners’ curricular materials consist of three key components, each of which address different levels of reading ability with curriculum-based, logically-sequenced materials. Upon entry into Reading Partners, every student is assessed using the Rigby PM Ultra Benchmarking Kit and placed into one of the three programs depending on the child’s individual needs.
Family outreach is a critical component of Reading Partners. Through the Home Connections program, Reading Partners works to invest parents as equal partners in their child's successful literacy development through family-centered literacy activities and Take Reading Home, a year-round book giveaway program.
History
Reading Partners began at Belle Haven Elementary School in Menlo ParkMenlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
when members of the community joined together to help students struggling with reading skills. At the time, fewer than 1 in 5 students at Belle Haven could read at grade level and more than 80% of students qualified for the National School Lunch Program. Starting with just three volunteers working in the school library, the organization quickly grew to serve more than 100 children at Belle Haven and began replicating to nearby Title I elementary schools.
After formally incorporating as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Reading Partners began an expansion phase, opening 60 new school programs between 2002 and 2011.
External links
- Reading Partners website
- Volunteer opportunities for high school students, ABC News
- Reading Partners honored by the Volunteer Center of San Francisco
- Partnering Up to Help Kids Learn, Pasadena Star-News
- Learning a Love of Reading, San Jose Mercury News
- Prisons are Robbing California's Schools, Los Angeles Times
- A Tutor's Dream Come True, San Mateo Daily Journal