Evaluation Report Brief

Reading Partners

nationalservice.gov/research 1 

What is the community challenge? 

Consistent and quality educational supports like tutoring can 

have a significant impact on a student’s academic 

achievement. However, these can be difficult to access for 

families unable to pay for them. Across the United States 

nearly 80% of all K-5 students from low income families are 

reading below grade level. Children who experience difficulty

reading in earlier grades have a higher risk of later negative 

outcomes, such as dropping out of high school. 

Program At-a-Glance 

Intervention: Reading Partners 

Subgrantee: Reading Partners 

Intermediary: Edna McConnell Clark Foundation 

(EMCF) 

Focus Area: Youth Development 

Focus Population: Elementary school students 

reading below grade level from low income families 

Communities Served: 40+ school districts across 9 What is Reading Partners’ promising solution? states 

Reading Partners focuses on elementary school students who 

are at least six months behind in reading, recruiting and using 

community volunteers to provide individualized instruction to help 

them master the reading fundamentals they need to reach grade level. 

The volunteers work one-on-one with these students twice a week, 

every week using an established curriculum that is aligned with 

Common Core and other state standards. AmeriCorps members are 

leveraged to act as coordinators and volunteer recruiters for Reading 

Partners’ in-school sites. 

What did the evaluation of Reading Partners find?

As a subgrantee of the Social Innovation Fund, Reading Partners engaged an independent evaluator to 

evaluate their program model. The study found that the program: 

 more effectively raised students’ reading proficiency than other similar reading programs in the same 

schools that were studied; 

 had a positive and statistically significant impact on students’ reading comprehension, reading 

fluency, and sight word efficiency; 

 showed suggestive evidence that it was particularly effective with students reading at the lowest 

levels; and 

 cost the host school/school district on average $710 per student, compared with an average of $1690 

per student for other reading programs offered in the same school. 

In addition, the program was implemented as designed (i.e., with fidelity) across sites studied, and has a 

high likelihood of producing similar results if implemented with fidelity elsewhere.

To access the full evaluation report and learn more about CNCS, please visit nationalservice.gov/research. 

Office of Research and Evaluation, Corporation for National and Community Service July 2015
Evaluation Report Brief

Reading Partners

Evaluation design, timeline and study locations

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The evaluation of Reading Partners began in 2012 and finished reporting in 2014. This process included both 

an implementation evaluation to see whether the program was being run as designed and an impact 

evaluation intended to observe the changes in participant students’ reading ability as a result of the program. 

In total 1,265 students took part in the study in 19 schools across three states. 

Evaluation At-a-Glance 

Level of Evidence before Evaluation*: Preliminary 

Level of Evidence** after Evaluation: Strong 

Evaluation Design(s): Implementation Evaluation; 

Impact Evaluation (Randomized Controlled Trial); 

Cost Study 

Study Population: Students grades 2-5 in 

predominately urban/suburban, Title I schools 

Evaluator: MDRC 

* SIF-supported interventions undergo a level of evidence assessment at the 

point of program entry and are expected to advance that base of evidence 

through rigorous evaluation during the grant period.

**SIF and AmeriCorps currently use different definitions of levels of evidence.

Study Locations 

How is Reading Partners using the evaluation findings to improve? 

As a result of the knowledge gained from the evaluation, Reading Partners is making changes to its "core 

model" by expanding and improving their current program to address students’ absolute literacy gains in 

order to achieve reading proficiency by 4th grade. Their key changes include: 1) reframing the target 

population to serve greater numbers of students in earlier grades before reading gaps become very large, 2) 

enhancing curriculum, assessment, training, and quality assurance systems, and 3) serving more students per 

site with extended sessions. Reading Partners will continue to expand into more schools and new districts 

across the country. In addition, Reading Partners has planned pilots of additional interventions aimed at 

increasing reading proficiency and include summer programming, multi-year support of high need students, 

and engaging additional community volunteers. 

The content of this brief was drawn from the full evaluation report submitted to CNCS by the grantee/subgrantee. The section of the brief that 

discusses evaluation use includes contribution of the grantee/subgrantee. All original content from the report is attributable to its authors.

The Social Innovation Fund (SIF), a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), combines public and private 

resources to grow the impact of innovative, community-based solutions that have compelling evidence of improving the lives of people in lowincome communities throughout the United States. The SIF invests in three priority areas: economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth 

development.

Office of Research and Evaluation, Corporation for National and Community Service July 2015