Partners in Reading

The Partners in Reading program (PIR) is a school-based tutoring program for beginner readers. PIR is designed to increase the number of books that students read independently, to enhance the difficulty level of the books that students read, and to improve students' ability to recognize and pronounce words correctly. Tutors help students read and reread instructional texts that are appropriate to a student's reading level, provide students with immediate and frequent feedback, and employ activities to encourage students' use of sophisticated word recognition strategies and to motivate students to learn. PIR was implemented in a single school that requested help in meeting the needs of its struggling readers, because the number of these students exceeded the resources of the school's Reading Recovery (RR) program (the regular tutoring program).

The goal of this program is to improve reading skills for beginner readers.

For both Group 1 and Group 2, PIR students significantly outscored control group students on measures of word recognition and spelling at the end of first grade. Results from the Metropolitan Achievement Test at the end of second grade indicated that PIR students had outscored control students on word recognition and reading comprehension.