WHY WITS PROGRAMS MATTER
WITS creates community through literacy-based mentorship, enabling teachers to build diverse classroom libraries, and promoting book ownership at home.
With the help of their mentors, WITS Kindergarten students practice building book and print awareness, including reading left to right and distinguishing between letters and words.
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.
One hundred percent 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.
Started in 2005, Mid-Day Mentoring (MDM) is a year-long literacy mentorship program for second-third 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.
The WITS Rochelle Lee Teacher Award (RLTA) is an award-based grant for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) pre-kindergarten to eighth grade teachers to help them add brand new books to their classroom libraries. CPS teachers apply for the grant and select books to enhance their libraries and receive books that their students may borrow.
Started in 2005, WITS Kindergarten (WITSK) serves Chicago Public Schools kindergartners. Students spend fifteen-twenty minutes once a week reading aloud one-on-one with the same mentor, practicing skills, and enjoying stories. WITSK helps students build book and print awareness as well as letter and sound recognition skills. WITSK encourages students to love reading.
Started in 1999, Workplace Mentoring (WPM) is a year-long literacy mentorship program for fourth-eighth grade Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students. Once a week after school, students are transported to a corporate office to meet one-on-one with their mentor for shared reading and homework support.
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.
