Help a Dallas student read on grade level!

One afternoon, the Readers 2 Leaders office coordinator popped into the office of Sarah Lewis, Director of Coaching. She said a parent from one of our coaching partner sites left a message to call her. The mom told Lewis that her son struggled with his confidence. He had wanted to learn to read for so long, but they never saw improvement, although he was trying so hard. Now, finally, she felt like something had clicked over the past few months, and he was reading much better, but she wanted to confirm that he was growing and not just becoming a good guesser.

Lewis was happy to email the most recent progress report. Her son had increased his words per minute from 5 to 55 words per minute, and his accuracy had improved from 36% to 90%.

Within minutes after sending the email, the mother called Lewis, crying. She said her son had struggled for so long without making any improvements, and she was so relieved to see that he was gaining the skills he needed to be a successful reader.

She said he liked going to Readers 2 Leaders sessions because he felt like he was getting better, and he liked that his teacher had a coach helping her learn. Lewis told her to talk to her son, show him the results, and go crazy about it so he could celebrate and start getting some of his self-confidence back.

The next day, Lewis had a check-in meeting with the program staff. Before the meeting,  she popped in to watch a student session. As the students came in for their sessions, the student walked in and said, “I don’t know if you know this, but I’m getting really good at reading.”