Wisconsin Reading Corps excelling
Program a bright spot in raising childhood literacy
“If I were given carte blanche to design a reading intervention and was told money wasn’t a concern, this is exactly what I’d do.”
Patrick Mulvey is talking about the Wisconsin Reading Corps, a five-yearold program that provided one-on-one tutoring to 1,272 students in early grades at 37 schools in southern Wisconsin during the school year that just ended.
Mulvey is a reading specialist at the Woodlands School campus at 3121 W. State St. in Milwaukee, one of those 37 schools.
The charter school has about 300 students and, in recent years, its record on Wisconsin’s standardized tests puts it right around the Milwaukee average of only one in five students rated as proficient or better in reading.
“We see the literacy rates aren’t what we need them to be and we desperately want good programs, and we think Reading Corps is a good one,” Mulvey said.
I wrote in this space two weeks ago that intensifying Wisconsin-wide efforts to get a lot more low-income, and particularly Black children, to be good readers by the end of third grade would be a promising way to offer more equity and justice to children and, ultimately, adults.
Wisconsin’s efforts have been tepid when it comes to improving shockingly low reading scores for Black kids. Wisconsin has the biggest gaps in the U.S. by race and among the lowest actual scores for Black students.
I put the Wisconsin Reading Corps in a separate category than other efforts that I criticized. It has a growing record of success. It is modeled after an older and bigger effort in Minnesota that also has a record of success.
The reading corps effort is built around tutors who are part of the federal Americorps program. They are trained in strategies to use in helping kids read, they are assigned to work in specific schools every day, and they generally meet each day for 20 minutes with the same students for six weeks or more, until the student is reading on grade level. The schools select the students, who are generally in first through third grade.
The effort is funded by Americorps, a grant in the Wisconsin state budget and private donations. Schools do not have to pay, other than to assign a staff member as the liaison with the tutors and to provide facilities. The cost works out to be about $1,100 per
student per year.
With the suspension of regular school time in March, in-person tutoring ended, but school leaders who work with the Reading Corps praised its efforts to switch to distance work, which is not easy with young students. For next year, Reading Corps leaders say they are gearing up for more extensive distance efforts, if necessary.
The 37 schools that took part this year are in Milwaukee, Racine, Waukesha, Watertown and West Allis. If things can proceed as planned, Sheboygan and Beloit will be added in the coming year and there will be 83 tutors overall. The tutors work in public schools (including a dozen Milwaukee public schools), charter schools and private schools.
Five school leaders who I spoke to had unanimous and strong praise for the effort.
They pointed first to the one-on-one aspect, since that is something that can make a big difference and yet is hard for classroom teachers to provide. And individual students and tutors work together daily for an extended period, so relationships grow.
They also praised the training of the tutors; the program’s “fidelity” in following tutoring strategies carefully; the extensive use of data on each student’s progress, including flexibility in responding when things aren’t working well enough; and the continuous coaching and oversight of tutors by Reading Corps staff members.
Emily Lesser, principal of Douglas Elementary School in Watertown, said, “We have been really impressed ... with the quality of the interventions and the training that the tutors have and the ongoing support that they’re getting from Wisconsin Reading Corps.” She said that of 41 students who had at least six weeks of tutoring before school was disrupted by the coronavirus, 37 met or exceeded goals for improving. The students involved are generally ones who were “on the bubble” for making it as readers.
Janell Decker, executive director of curriculum and instruction for the Racine Unified School District, said the Reading Corps’ work “is really well thought out, well planned, really well supported in all areas.” Reading Corps tutors work in seven Racine schools. Decker said an independent study last year showed that students who were involved were 22% more likely than other students to reach their reading goals.
Jenna Willis, who works Corps tutors at all four Milwaukee College Prep schools, said, “With Reading Corps, part of the success is that they are so laserfocused. They are able to maximize the impact of their interaction.”
She said 131 of 208 students at the four schools exceeded growth goals.
“Reading Corps is one of the great tools that could truly help us close the achievement gap,” she said.
Kristi Cole, who has been chief operating officer for Milwaukee College Prep, said, “There are so many things I love about Reading Corps, but obviously (the foremost) is the individualized attention that scholars get.” (Cole is leaving to lead the launch of a school in 2021 in Beloit.)
No one is saying the Reading Corps is the full answer to Wisconsin’s reading problems. But the Corps is becoming a valuable part of what could be a broader and more energized campaign to raise the achievement of thousands of struggling students.
Furthermore, the corps’ work is being conducted with a sense of determination and urgency that could send a valuable broader message. If one of the things Wisconsin needs is to get moving on reading improvement, here is part of the scene where there is good movement.
“We have been really impressed ... with the quality of the interventions and the training that the tutors have and the ongoing support that they’re getting from Wisconsin Reading Corps.” Emily Lesser principal of Douglas Elementary School in Watertown