Reading Assist helps Delaware students recover learning loss

The data is in, and Reading Assist students had another record year.

Reading Assist is sharing its student performance results for the 2021-22 year, which now includes a full 12 months of high-dosage tutoring support for struggling readers.

Based on assessments of almost 600 students in kindergarten to third grade served by Reading Assist during the academic year, 70% reached benchmarks in early foundational reading skills. Reading Assist also helped these young readers accelerate their learning, with students outpacing expectations for growth by an average 200%, and some outpacing expected growth by up to 600%. Further, during Reading Assist’s second year of summer programming, which wrapped up in early August, 87% of students served showed improvement after just four weeks of tutoring.

These results underscore the positive impact of high-dosage tutoring – one-on-one tutoring delivered three or more days a week – for struggling young readers, particularly as so many students continue to recover learning loss from the COVID-19 pandemic. Reading Assist’s recent summer program results – showing overall growth in intermediate measures of reading ability of up to 56% – also confirm that engaging students in just a few weeks of one-on-one support over the summer months not only effectively prevents learning loss, but can also lead to measurable growth.

“We are proud of the incredible gains we’ve seen our students make this year, as well as the record growth of our program across the state,” said Caroline O’Neal, Reading Assist CEO. “We’ve served more than 1,000 students – five times the number we served in the previous school year, expanded our reach to all three counties, and recruited triple the number of fellows. Most importantly, we continue to see outstanding results from our kids, which is proof that high-dosage tutoring works for students who are struggling the most.”

Data from the Delaware Department of Education released in August shows Delaware students are still behind in critical reading skills. In an effort to address these poor reading scores, the Delaware Legislature passed a series of bills this spring in support of implementing a science-based approach to reading instruction. DDOE also launched a Strategy to Accelerate Learning last year in order to address the growing literacy gap. Reading Assist’s growth was fueled in part through this strategy.

“Leadership in Delaware at both the state level and at the Department of Education is aware of the challenges kids are facing,” O’Neal said. “Through the development of plans such as the Strategy to Accelerate Learning and recent legislation, we are hopeful Delaware can address the literacy crisis in a meaningful way. Programs like Reading Assist, which help add capacity for teachers and schools, are an effective part of plans to improve literacy rates.”

For children with significant reading struggles, early intervention and intensive reading support are key components to their success. High-dosage tutoring has been found to be one of the most effective interventions for fostering reading growth in all students, particularly in low-income students and students of color, two of Reading Assist’s priority student populations.

For more detailed data on Reading Assist student performance from the 2021-22 academic year, go to readingassist.org.

Reading Assist is a nonprofit organization that provides year-round, high-dosage tutoring services to at-risk children across Delaware with the most significant reading challenges. Since its inception, Reading Assist has helped thousands of readers across Delaware acquire critical reading skills over the course of one academic year, changing the trajectory of these learners’ lives. To help students reach reading proficiency, Reading Assist recruits and trains AmeriCorps members, known as Reading Assist Fellows, to deliver its accredited one-on-one reading program to students in Delaware’s highest-needs schools.