Our Mission
Read Alliance works to accelerate the educational trajectory of early elementary students through the power of teens who provide one-to-one literacy tutoring in under-resourced communities.
How We Do It
Read Alliance trains and pays high school students as individual reading tutors for their younger peers in kindergarten, first, and second grade who are struggling to read. These Teen Leaders are employed in safe, meaningful jobs in their own communities, mentored by licensed teachers, and trained to use a structured phonics curriculum to promote foundational reading skills.
Benefits for Students
READ students receive the one-to-one support in foundational reading skills they require to catch up to their peers, and gain the confidence to thrive academically in their classrooms.
Children who complete the READ program improve an average of one grade level in reading.
Benefits for Teens
READ Teen Leaders gain meaningful after school and summer employment, become economically empowered, gain career and college pathway exposure, learn important professional skills, and serve as role models for their younger counterparts.
More than 95% of Teen Leaders demonstrate growth in social and emotional learning, and a recent NYU study demonstrates that teen leaders also improve a full grade level in foundational reading skills in just 4 weeks of tutoring.
Our Model
Read Alliance believes that success starts early.
Read Alliance provides early literacy intervention to K-2nd graders in schools and community-based organizations in all five boroughs in NYC; Berks County, PA; Western NY; and the eastern shore of MD. READ’s School Year and Summer Reading Programs’ near-peer tutoring model employs teens from the same communities to deliver our proven intervention model grounded in the science of reading.
The teen tutors, who we call Teen Leaders to represent the dynamic role they play in the lives of the READ students, are trained to implement a phonics-based curriculum one-on-one; data collection to measure reading level progress; and behavior and classroom management strategies. Teen Leaders are paid minimum wage, are provided mentorship through working closely with licensed teachers and youth development professionals, and ongoing professional and leadership development opportunities through a complementary Teen Leadership Program.
They have a chance to advance to Senior Teen Leader, a supervisory role with additional responsibilities, as well as other pathways to to advancement at Read Alliance. READ’s Pathways to Education initiative, embedded within the Teen Leadership Program, paves the way for college and career exploration, financial literacy, and support in pursuing careers in teaching.
READ’s School Year and Summer Reading Programs provide 45 sessions of one-to-one high dosage tutoring, 3-4 times per week for 90 minutes. Each session incorporates 45 minutes of individual tutoring and 45 minutes of complementary literacy activities that foster a love of reading and books, including teacher-led group read-alouds to build reading confidence; arts and literacy activities to build comprehension skills; and a lending library to allow students to take books home and encourage practicing their skills outside of the program.