Zoom Cares provided Ignite! Reading with funding and in-kind Zoom licenses that allow the organization’s one-on-one reading tutoring programming to flourish. Read more about Ignite! Reading and the impact of Zoom’s technology below.
About Ignite! Reading
A fully virtual, Zoom-powered tutoring program, Ignite! Reading believes every child deserves the right to learn to read on time. It focuses on younger readers, working to ensure every student is an independent reader by the start of second grade.
With only 35% of fourth graders in the U.S. reading at their grade level, Ignite! Reading works with students to build the skills they need to become independent readers. Through direct instruction, Ignite! Reading gives students the tools they need to understand the English language and bring the words on the page to life.
Ignite! Reading & Zoom Cares
Ignite! Reading delivers measurably positive results for students by providing educators with the latest technology and tools to support reading instruction. Zoom’s technology enables students to build positive relationships around reading with a nurturing adult who is also a highly trained reading teacher. Ignite! tutors use Zoom’s whiteboard functionality to illustrate reading concepts for students, and the organization’s literacy coaches leverage Zoom’s recording function to assess tutors’ teaching methods and provide feedback, thus leading to better student achievement.
How Ignite! Reading Delivers Impact
The Ignite! Reading tutoring program is a data-driven, differentiated, foundational reading skills curriculum to ensure first grade students learn to read on time. Ignite! Reading accelerates reading progress by a factor of 2.5 through just 15 minutes of high-dosage, one-on-one tutoring via Zoom each day. By leveraging a virtual platform to eliminate traditional challenges to private tutoring, such as cost and convenience, Ignite! Reading is able to serve 625 first through fifth graders in 13 schools across six states. Ignite! Reading works with Title I schools, with an average of 76% of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch.
“Zoom has allowed us to meet children wherever they are: at home, in school, or at any other location connected to the internet. Given the pandemic-related disruptions, Zoom ensured our programming remained intact earlier this year when one of our schools was shut down. Without this technology, students’ reading progress would have been grounded to a halt.”
Jessica Reid Silwerski, Founder of Ignite! Reading
In Ignite! Reading’s latest pilot, 89% of students passed their first progress monitoring assessment. Ignite! Reading’s partners share more about the impact they’ve seen from implementing the tutoring program into their students’ curriculum:
“In the short time that we have implemented the Ignite! Reading program, we have seen kids excited about connecting with their tutors, excited to show off what they are learning, and most importantly, excited to read.”
Yeu Kue, Principal of Quinsigamond Elementary School in Worcester, MA
“By merging an evidence-based approach to literacy with the latest technological tools, Ignite! is reimagining the way our kids learn to read.”
Claudia Salvestrin, Assistant Superintendent of Red Bluff Union Elementary School District in CA
“Zoom has allowed us to meet children wherever they are: at home, in school, or at any other location connected to the internet. Without this technology, the kids’ reading progress would have been grounded to a halt.”
— Jessica Reid Silwerski, Founder of Ignite! Reading
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Learn more about Ignite! Reading, and how you can support their mission.