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		is dedicated to bridging the achievement gap one reader at a time. Through the creation of partnerships between colleges, public schools, and community agencies, we offer the
opportunity for under prepared urban adolescents to get the systematic one-on-one reading guidance that they need in order to thrive. In January 2005, Reading MD obtained funding for a pilot program at City on a Hill Charter Public High School to provide sixteen CoaH 10th graders with 28 hours of individualized literacy tutoring in preparation for the English MCAS exam. The program began on February 3rd and ended on April 14th. Four experienced Lead Tutors and twelve Literacy Tutors were hired from Northeastern University, MIT, The Berklee College of Music, and Harvard University. Pre and Post testing showed that the reading growth of students who participated in the two month program averaged .75 of a year, as opposed to .2 of a year growth for students who were not in the program. This success has led City on a Hill to contract with Reading, MD to run similar programs this summer, fall, and spring, and The MATCH School to contract with Reading, MD to coordinate curriculum for their summer tutorial program as well. Additional upcoming projects may include work in the Cambridge Public Schools and Boston Public Schools through Supplemental Educational Services funding. Our work is grounded in a host of research showing that that while “much of the instruction provided by” Title One “has been and continues to be ineffective,” “one noteworthy reform has operated under Title I funding – a tradition of service delivery built around one-to-one reading instruction with trained tutors” (Crane, Programs that Work, 75). It is grounded as well in founder Mark Destler’s success translating this largely elementary school practice to the secondary level at the award-winning Media and Technology Charter High School. At MATCH, He received a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Education and consulted with local professors of reading and education to develop a curriculum for tutors that trained them in the assessment and remediation of student reading difficulties.  He worked closely with these tutors (the majority of them work-study students from MIT) in the context of a nationally recognized MATCH Summer Academy (see http://www.matchschool.org/Press/articles/nytimes-8-9-02.htm) that educated students exclusively through one-on-one instruction. He conducted pre- and post- testing in the summer of 2003 that showed average reading gains of .9 grade level between May and September for those who participated in the five-week academy (as opposed to students not in the academy, who showed a loss of .2 years during the same time period). Nine years of work in public education has given him a deep understanding of and respect for the work that goes on in classrooms throughout Massachusetts.  At the same time, however, it has convinced him that the deep reading needs of under prepared adolescents can only be met through individualized instruction and that for this instruction to be effective and affordable it needs to come from well-trained and highly-motivated college students. Reading, MD believes that the achievement gap will be closed in the trenches, one student at a time. At the same time, we believe that our low costs and documented success (and the successes of the tutoring models we are inspired by) offer the potential of reaching and teaching every struggling adolescent reader in urban America. If you’re interested in working with us, please contact Mark Destler by email (mdd@massed.net), on the web (www.readingmd.org), or by phone (617 504 6021).