Reading Team

The Reading Team preschool program is an intensive and multifaceted early literacy intervention that serves children from neighborhood day care centers and head start programs. This program enables the children we serve to develop the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are developmental precursors to Reading and writing. It is administered by trained, paid teaching staff called literacy mentors. The Reading Team after-school program serves children in kindergarten through fifth grade who typically are referred to us by their teachers because they are struggling to keep up in the classroom and sometimes because they have classroom behavior problems as well. The Reading Team engages the children in a wide range of literacy-nurturing activities that enable them to make significant gains in Reading ability their first year in the program. More than 80% of Reading Team children have historically passed the new york state english language arts exam given starting in 3rd grade (on average in harlem, only 30% of children pass this exam)the after-school program is administered by trained,paid teachers known as literary mentors. The Reading Team parent programs help parents make better academic decisions and life choices for their children. Our elementary school advisory program advises and supports parents as they make important decisions about their children's schooling and a series of parent conversations teaches parents some simple and positive things they can do to support their children's developing literacy.