Help us reach our goal of $250,000! Your support can help children to read!
Help Children Learn to Read
Some students face a fresh and frustrating challenge with each word they try to read. While stories come alive effortlessly for some of their classmates, some students find themselves lost in a maze of letters and sounds.
Your Gift Creates the Life-Changing Skill of Being Able to Read
For just $90.33, you can provide a child with a month of high-quality literacy intervention. Your support helps our students to get back on track and rediscover the magic of reading.
Transform More Than Just Reading Skills
Your gift will do more than just improve a student's reading; it's about building lifelong confidence and enabling young students to reach their fullest potential.
Founded in 2009, Catch Up & Read's mission is to equip children from underserved communities to read on grade level by the end of 3rd grade, a recognized benchmark for predicting high school graduation, teen pregnancy, dropout and incarceration rates. Catch Up & Read provides a leveraged solution that raises the bar on classroom instruction which impacts students during the day and provides consistent teacher-led intervention for high-need students after school with the goal of actually catching students up to grade level reading.
Catch Up & Read's comprehensive two-pronged approach delivers what schools need to raise the bar on student outcomes: 1) Professional development for campus teachers and 2) After-school tutoring for high-need students.
Teachers love our training that incorporates social-emotional strategies for students experiencing poverty, social or racial inequality, trauma, or other barriers in life. By equipping teachers with best practices based in the science of reading, students receive effective literacy instruction throughout the school day and targeted intervention during after-school tutoring. This leveraged approach provides high-quality equitable instruction for every child in the classroom for years to come and shifts the instructional focus from intervention to prevention. Catch Up & Read's model has the potential to reach large numbers of children and provide lasting improvement to public schools.
And Catch Up & Read works! Catch Up & Read students improve in reading skills as they close the gaps which improves their confidence and self-image. Additionally, teachers participating in Catch Up & Read report increased effectiveness, job satisfaction, morale, and leadership opportunities.
Donate today to help as many children as possible!!
Third grade is a pivotal reading level because it is the final year children are “learning to read” before they begin “reading to learn” (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2019). If students are not proficient readers by fourth grade, they will not be able to apply their reading skills to comprehend other subjects. Students are four times less likely to graduate by age 19 if they do not learn how to read by the end of third grade, and when compounded with experiencing poverty, they are 13 times less likely to earn their diploma on time (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2012). Lacking a high school diploma leads to limited opportunities in adulthood, including lower employment rates, lower wages, and higher incarceration rates (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2013).
The COVID-19 pandemic worsened these prospects for many students. The 2022 Nation’s Report Card (NAEP) highlighted that 82% of Dallas ISD fourth graders were not reading at grade level. In the April 2022 hearing for the Texas House Committee on Public Education, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath shared that over the course of the pandemic, 10 years of educational gains in reading proficiency have been lost for Texas students. But “if exceptional efforts are made to provide remedial classes and catch-up strategies, recovery could occur", according to data from a joint survey conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund.
This gap has widened for students of color and students in underserved communities. According to test results in 2021, students in majority-Black and underserved schools were six months behind in reading—two to three months further behind than white and high-income peers (McKinsey & Company, 2021).
Catch Up & Read provides services in both English and Spanish.
Believing in the power of literacy to transform lives and communities, Catch Up & Read’s mission is to equip children from underserved communities to read on grade level by 3rd grade so they can graduate from high school and break the generational cycle of poverty. Our focus is to equip teachers with evidence-based literacy practices that give children from underserved communities the reading foundation they need to succeed in school and life.
$125,000 - Adopt a School for the year and be a Campus Hero!
$20,000 - Adopt a Classroom for a year and be a Classroom Hero!
$1,000 - Classroom Incentive Store Sponsor
$500 - Classroom Read Aloud Library Sponsor
$270. 99 - Provides 3 students with literacy support for a month!
$180.66 - Provides 2 students with literacy support for a month!
$90.33 - Provides 1 student with literacy support for a month!
$22.58 - Provides 1 student with literacy support for a week!
Catch Up & Read was founded to provide equity-based supports so that ALL of our students can achieve their full potential. We work in historically underserved communities and are passionate about closing the opportunity gap by elevating literacy instruction, empowering teachers with best practices and equipping children to read. We believe in the power of literacy to transform lives and communities.
We recognize that a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging requires a long-term commitment. We strive to create an inclusive work environment by valuing diverse identities and perspectives and working together to support the success of our teammates.
Equity undergirds every one of our values:
1. Commitment to Excellence. We have high expectations of ALL our students, their parents, our teachers, and ourselves because we want equitable education for all. Together, with our students, parents and teachers, we are committed to working hard to achieve the highest standards in reading and teaching excellence.
2. Continuous Learning. We are always seeking to know and deliver best practices in our field. We analyze data for each student to customize individual learning plans that will maximize their growth.
3. Confidence. Achieving starts with believing. That’s why we look for opportunities to cultivate confidence in ALL of our students, educators and colleagues. We strive for our children to become strong readers, our teachers to become strong teachers, and for their confidence to radiate.
4. Collaboration. We work as a diverse team alongside best-in-class educators to grow all our students.
5. Celebration. We celebrate small wins and big accomplishments of our awesome students, educators, supporters and team.
View our current participation opportunities.
In-Person Volunteering
Partner or Volunteer
Various location in Dallas
Ongoing opportunity
Organization name
Catch Up & Read
Causes
Education - K-12
Operating Budget
$1,000,000 - $2,999,999
Counties Served
Dallas
BIPOC Serving
Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx
Equity Statement
Equity Statement
Address
12222 Merit Dr. Suite 110