Reading Corps works with more than 25,000 students in pre-K through 3^rd grade in nearly 600 schools across Minnesota. Tutors provide intensive, daily reading interventions in urban, suburban, and rural schools.

Northeast Range School, a small elementary school in rural Minnesota, needed a solution to help their struggling readers. Reading Corps did far more than put trained tutors in the classroom. The program sparked a love for learning with students and broadened each school’s community of educators.

Reading Corps tutors receive comprehensive training in foundational literacy skills. The bonds formed from daily sessions with students help address other critical areas for success in and out of the classroom.

Kelly Engman, Northeast Range principal, recalls a 3^rd grade student who approached her first few Reading Corps sessions with apathy and apprehension. The tutor and classroom educator quickly realized that the student was terrified of making a mistake. With encouragement from her tutor, the student’s quiet reading blossomed into self-assurance. So did her excitement for new stories and new words. Now, she’s a confident, expressive reader.

The “turn-key” aspects of Reading Corps are extremely beneficial to Northeast Ridge. Reading Corps supplies fully trained tutors, best-practice curricula, and coaching specialists who work with tutors and collaborate regularly with school staff to ensure program success. As Principal Engman notes, “Our tutors are part of my team and our school community. They really help our students’ confidence, fill a learning gap, and help us become a more cohesive unit.” 

“Finding the time and the resources to put someone in a position where they can work with a student one on one, every day, is really difficult. Reading Corps does this, which is priceless.”

Kelly Engman, Principal, Northeast Range School

Reading Corps:

• Comprehensively trained AmeriCorps tutors serve in schools, part-time or full-time
• Daily reading interventions in person
• School staff trained by Reading Corps for on-demand support regarding student and educator communication
• Monthly coaching and feedback for tutors and school staff to ensure high fidelity to the program
• On-demand data management collection and assessment system and collaboration with school staff on data interpretation to track student progress
• No technology required