Reading Partners needs volunteers

By Lisa Bracken

“One hour can empower!” In the 2019-20 school year, Reading Partners aims to match 1060 community volunteers with 850 elementary students struggling to read in North Texas. 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.  

In Texas, only 18 percent 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, kids 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 North Texas. 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.  

The impressive student results are fueled by the generous participation of thousands of community volunteers. One hour truly can empower! To become a volunteer, visit readingpartners.org/volunteer today.