Watch a video about the Forward Scholars story here.

Our mission and beginning

Together we build brighter futures and stronger communities through reading.

Forward Scholars is a community volunteer tutoring program focused on helping K-3rd graders who are not yet reading at grade level.

The program began in the fall of 2022 in 5 MPS schools and was wildly successful. Students jumped nearly twice the expected yearly reading growth. For the 2023-2024 school year, we expanded our program to serve more than 180 MPS students in 7 schools. Our program is flourishing and we will continue to grow for the 2024-2025 school year.

Forward Scholars was started by Common Ground, a 15-year-old community organizing group with a track record of success in a number of areas, including education. Common Ground’s leaders saw a need and took action.

How Forward Scholars works

The students we work with are K5 - 3rd graders who are not yet meeting grade-level expectations with reading.

Each student is paired with a volunteer, who is well-supported with training, individualized lesson plans and materials for every one-on-one tutoring session.

Tutoring takes place during the day at the school in a "learning lab," which is staffed by a Forward Scholars Site Coordinator — a highly-qualified literacy specialist who works for Forward Scholars. The site coordinator will be present for every session to coach and support you and your student.

Why our program works

The Forward Scholars program is based on Book Buddies, a research-based tutoring framework that has been a national standard in reading intervention for thousands of students for almost 40 years. Book Buddies originates from Columbia University Teachers’ College and the University of Virginia and utilizes volunteer tutors from the community. FS determines its training, materials, assessments, curriculum, lesson format, and tutor instructional language largely from this instructional framework.

• In urban environments comparable to MPS, such as New York City and Chicago, using control group research methodology, the Book Buddies model has demonstrated significant results.

• Site coordinators, certified teachers with bachelor/master degrees and reading instruction backgrounds, create individualized lesson plans for each student, train the tutors, assemble materials for the tutor-student sessions, and coach tutors/students during each session.

• Tutors are matched one-to-one with students during 45-minute sessions, with the site coordinator present to provide support. Tutoring takes place in a dedicated room designated by the school. Tutors provide instruction to the same student twice per week with make-up sessions available.

• The overall program is led by our Executive Director Dr. Carrie Streiff-Stuessy with a doctorate in language and literacy and 25 years of experience in early elementary teaching and instructional coaching/leadership.

Is the program successful?

Yes. After the first year of Forward Scholars (the 2022-2023 school year), students gained an average of 3.3 reading levels versus the expected 2 levels for a year of instruction.

During the 2023-2024 school year, students have grown a full year of reading growth in less than a half year of instruction. Come back mid-June for our full year data update! 

Example: a Forward Scholars student starting at a late 1st grade level would be at a mid 3rd grade level after a year of instruction.

You can find more info in the End of Year assessment here.

Our numbers prove it

On average, students who received tutoring with Forward Scholars grew by more than 1.5 years in reading!