About Us

For typical Read Alliance students—from low-income homes in New York City’s most disadvantaged communities—the learning stops when the school day ends. The result? 60% of children in inner city school districts nationwide, including a large proportion of New York City’s public-school population and 100% of Read Alliance students, read below grade level. Without intervention, the achievement gap between these at-risk students and their peers will continue to grow, with detrimental effects on achievements later in life. Read Alliance works to improve the educational trajectory of these at-risk kindergarten and first grade students through one-to-one tutoring in foundational, reading skills. What makes our program especially unique is that teens are employed to provide the tutoring. Using a well-structured, research-based curriculum, our tutors work with students after school and during the summer. To this end, not only does Read Alliance shrink the achievement gap by providing economically disadvantaged, at-risk students with basic reading skills, but we also provide teens with critical college, career, and life skills.