Arlington Public Schools is searching for volunteers to read to elementary-aged kids for an hour each week, as part of a push to improve literacy skills and get kids excited about reading.
The pilot program, called “Readers Rise: Empowering Young Minds Through Reading,” is scheduled to start in mid-October. Volunteers will get trained and then read to K-2 students at Barrett, Hoffman-Boston or Long Branch elementary schools. The district said those schools were picked based on a “diversity of needs.”
“We’re seeing positive trends in our K-2 data,” APS Chief Academic Officer Gerald Mann said. “But we also know, until every student is reading on grade level, we want to provide them the opportunity to continue to practice their reading and also gain a mentor.”
The pilot schools are in the process of identifying students who will participate and searching for volunteers. Ideally, Mann said the sessions will be one-on-one, giving students the chance to build a new relationship with an adult from the community.
“A lot of times when kids get to work directly with somebody that is not a well-known figure in the school, that gets them even more jazzed about the special thing that they’ve been invited to,” said Jessica DaSilva, the principal at Long Branch Elementary.
The district is planning to review the results of the program mid-year to determine if it can expand to other schools.
“It is going to help continue to get kids excited about reading,” DaSilva said. “It is going to help them see that it’s not just teachers that can teach them things.”
Many times, DaSilva said, community members want to help students but think it’s out of their area of expertise.
“Now this is a targeted, explicit way that they can support, and I think that’s exciting,” DaSilva said. “And I think that will hopefully encourage people to come in, because they’re going to get some training.”
Mann, meanwhile, is hoping the effort could also motivate more students to read for fun.
“It is concerning when you see, just as a population, that we’re not interested in this,” Mann said. “But if we can get them excited about that, and that’s one of our hopes, is the excitement to see the joy in reading, to go to the library, whether at the school, public library; to have a book in your hand and experience that joy that so many of us do daily.”
In a statement posted on X, the group Arlington Parents for Education, which has been advocating for a volunteer reading program, said the pilot “is a huge step forward for student literacy and a win for everyone who spoke up for more investment in reading support.”
The application to volunteer is scheduled to close Sept. 26. Mann said 48 people signed up on the first day it was open.
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