Reading Partners received a $20 million, unrestricted gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott to support its evidence-based early literacy intervention programs.
“This unprecedented gift is a huge win for early literacy in this country, which remains a widespread and critical challenge we have a responsibility to.
The five-year Education Innovation and Research Grant will help the national literacy nonprofit evaluate, optimize and scale its online tutoring program.
Grossman
Wyoming Seminary senior Shailee Desai and Gabrielle Grossman, a 2016 Sem graduate, were recently named recipients of the Wilkes-Barre Law & Library Association Scholarships.
Desai, of Shavertown, is the winner of the High School Scholarship, while Grossman, also of Shavertown, is the winner of the inaugural Law School Scholarship.
Desai graduated from Sem on May 29 and will be attending Princeton University in the fall, where she plans on majoring in either public policy or history. She is a four-year member of Sem’s Mock Trial team.
Grossman graduated from Northwestern University in 2020 with a double major in American Studies and Psychology and a minor in Creative Nonfiction. Upon her graduation from Northwestern, Grossman has been working at Reading Partner, an education non-profit in New York City. She will be attending Harvard Law School in the fall where she plans on studying Constitutional Law. Grossman has an interest in finding alternatives to incarceration th
Reading Partners is a one-on-one tutoring program that provides students individualized instruction twice a week.
“Our mission is to help children become lifelong readers by empowering communities to provide individualized instruction with measurable results,” said Shukurat Adamoh-Faniyan, executive director of Reading Partners.
She said the pandemic has made the need for funding even more critical.
“Currently we are serving 480 students across 19 Title 1 public schools and particularly those living in neighborhoods most impacted by COVID-19 disparities,” Adamoh-Faniyan said.
She said funding would help Reading Partners mitigate COVID-19 learning loss and support students the program already serves.
“The increased funds would allow us to serve more students and work with more schools to get kids back on track,” Adamoh-Faniyan said.