Success by third grade with Minnesota Reading Corps

Focusing on age three to third grade, Minnesota Reading Corps members and volunteers have contributed to student success, as demonstrated by 80 percent of "their" students passing the third grade Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments tests. Here are three ways that you can be part of this success story:

1) Ask your school's principal to sign up for Reading Corps participation -- the program is funded mostly by federal and state money, and schools do not need to dip into their budgets The deadline for schools to apply for Reading Corps tutors for the 2009-2010 school year is FEBRUARY 20. Information and on-line applications.

2) Sign on as a Reading Corps volunteer for a minimum of training time and one hour each week during the school year.

3) Make the big commmitment: Become a Reading Corps member through AmeriCorps. Reading Corps tutors commit for one year through AmeriCorps, and work either full-time (40 hours/week) or half-time (20 hours/week) and receive a "modest living allowance and education award."

The Minnesota Reading Corps serves about 2,200 students in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and about 7,500 statewide, with tutors in:
• 27 schools in Minneapolis
• 13 schools in St. Paul
16 Twin Cities suburban schools
• 105 schools in Greater Minnesota

The Reading Corps tutors don't cost schools a dime out of their budgets. Instead, the money comes from federal funding (about $7 million), state funding (about $1 million), and private funding from grants and donations (about $750,000.)