READING IS A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE.
What sets Reading Allowed apart from other literacy organizations in Philadelphia?
Reading Allowed is the only literacy nonprofit in the Philadelphia area that provides high dosage reading instruction delivered by practitioners certified and experienced in the scientifically proven structured literacy approach.
Literacy instruction of this caliber is often cost-prohibitive to those who need it the most. Reading Allowed believes that every struggling reader deserves the highest quality structured literacy instruction regardless of financial circumstances.
Reading Allowed is impacting more than 400 individuals of all ages across the Philadelphia area by:
- Providing individualized structured literacy tutoring on a sliding scale, delivered by 70+ rigorously trained, certified instructors
- Partnering with underserved school and community organizations.
- Funding structured literacy certification scholarships.
- Providing training and professional development opportunities for both our instructors and our community to enhance literacy practice and raise awareness of the literacy crisis in Philadelphia.
- Just over half of Philadelphia adults are functionally illiterate and nearly two thirds are low-literate.
- People who struggle with reading are more likely to drop out of high school, to experience periods of unemployment, to become involved with the criminal justice system, and to live in poverty.
- 85% of juveniles who interact with the juvenile court system are low literate
- In 2022, only 31% of 8th graders across Pennsylvania scored at the proficient level or above on the NAEP reading assessment. 1
- In 2022, Black students had an average score on the NAEP that was 26 points lower than White students.
- In 2022, Hispanic students had an average score on the NAEP that was 24 points lower than White students.
1https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2022/pdf/2023010PA8.pdf
We interviewed the film and tv star Ameer Baraka and learned about his humble beginnings and how his struggles with reading and undiagnosed dyslexia caused a downward spiral to life on the streets and then to prison. View his inspiring story.
Reading Allowed believes that every struggling reader deserves the highest quality structured literacy instruction regardless of financial circumstances. Instruction is delivered by caring and compassionate tutors who have been rigorously trained and certified in the most effective methods of structured literacy practices based on scientific research. Our hope is that all struggling readers become lifelong and joyous readers and writers.
Hilderbrand Pelzer III talks about the school to prison pipeline and why Reading Allowed’s work is so important.
