About
Our Mission
Team Read propels young students to become inspired, joyful readers and teens to become impactful leaders, ready to succeed in school and life, building stronger communities for all.
Our Vision
Our Values
Equity Statement
Team Read values diversity, equity, and inclusion through everything we do.
Team Read is committed to growing educational equity and implementing anti-racist practices, through our programs and as an organization. We do this in partnering with and impacting school systems, by increasing access and opportunity for youth who are furthest from educational justice and through the intentional selection of school partners and program participants. Our work is meant to equip, inspire, and educate our young people so they can change our world to become a just, equitable place for all. This means increasing justice and fairness within our own organization and within the larger system in which we play a part.
We seek to address educational inequities—particularly racial bias and discrimination—through quality out-of-school programming that helps to close learning gaps. In this way, we ensure kids furthest from educational justice get the attention and instruction they need to read joyfully and well, and that their teen coaches acquire the skills they need to lead and succeed in life and work.
We work with schools and communities and students who disproportionately come from:
- Underrepresented groups, including African American/Black, Hispanic or Latina, Bi/ Multiracial, Native American/Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander;
- Low-income backgrounds, specifically free and/or reduced lunch eligible;
- Households where English is not the home language.
Team Read acknowledges and values the intersections of race/ethnicity, gender identity and expression, class, sexual orientation, ability, age, national origin, and religious/spiritual identities in our students, our staff, and our organizational leadership.
Our Work
UPDATE (9/1/20): Team Read will offer virtual tutoring sessions throughout the 2020-21 school year. We are striving to serve more than 300 2nd-4th graders and provide jobs for at least 150 teens.
Team Read’s dual-impact model helps young students to become confident, joyful readers equipped for academic success, and teens to develop work and life skills that support their transition to college and future employment. Teachers refer second through third grade students who are reading at least one year below grade level proficiency to participate in the program. Team Read recruits, hires, and trains teen reading coaches from nearby middle and high schools, pairing them with these young students for one-on-one tutoring after school, two times per week.
Team Read 4 additionally serves fourth grade readers at the critical moment when they need to switch from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” Many readers make this transition easily in third grade, but some readers need more support. Team Read 4 students are supported by their teen coaches who help them develop the stamina to read longer chapter books with fewer pictures.
Team Read’s curriculum and materials are developed by reading teachers who incorporate the best literacy strategies and proven classroom tutoring techniques into our program. Informed by research and years of experience, the curriculum is designed to develop vocabulary, reading fluency and comprehension.
The primary instructional tool used by our reading coaches is the Power Reader Journal (PRJ). The PRJ is structured so that lessons include sight word work, phonics, reading comprehension and fluency. Lessons in the PRJ are aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Team Read also provides a collection of fun, interesting, culturally-relevant books at each tutoring site. Half are fiction, and half are non-fiction or informational.
A separate set of curriculum materials are designed specifically for Team Read 4. Fourth grade students practice more advanced comprehension strategies using more complex texts.
Update 5/26/21: Team Read’s 2021 summer program will be online, serving students in Seattle only (sites TBA). Reading pairs will work together online four days a week, utilizing the traditional Team Read curriculum along with special summer activities such as librarian read-alouds, games, and art projects.
Children who do not read during the summer can lose months of academic progress. According to the National Summer Learning Association, by the fifth grade, summer learning loss can leave low-income students two-and-a-half to three years behind their peers. Team Read is dedicated to helping student readers stay on track and continue to succeed, year-round. Our summer program has been growing and evolving since 2012. We partner with The Seattle Public Library, Seattle Public Schools, Seattle’s Department of Education and Early Learning, and Highline Public Schools to provide reading tutoring support and enrichment activities for hundreds of young students, while employing more than 100 teen coaches each summer.
Elementary Schools Served
Team Read’s 2020-21 after school program will be online for the entire year. We’re proud to be serving students from 22 elementary schools in Seattle and Highline, including several new additions in North and West Seattle.
