Started in 2005, Mid-Day Mentoring is a year-long literacy mentorship program for second and fourth grade Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students. Once a week, mentors are transported from their workplaces to a neighborhood school where they meet with their student each week for forty-five minutes, enjoying shared reading, conversation, and relationship building activities.
WHY MID-DAY MENTORING IS IMPORTANT
According to data from The Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR), based on testing from Spring 2024, only 31% of elementary school students in Chicago Public Schools are proficient in reading.
By the end of the school year, 71% of WITS students had met or exceeded the national standard for reading level proficiency in their grade level, compared to 39% at the beginning of the school year.
100% of our partner teachers are satisfied with student participation in WITS. Teachers value that our programs promote a love of reading and support social-emotional development in students.
64% of WITS students met or exceeded the national average for reading level growth in one year.
At the end of the school year 83% of WITS students said they like reading books for fun, up from 65% at the beginning of the year.
93% of WITS students reported feeling good or very good about spending time with their mentors
100% of our partner teachers are satisfied with student participation in WITS.
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program facilitators
