Opening Doors by Opening Books

Closing the literacy opportunity gap by helping families develop high impact home reading routines through:

Community-based partnerships

Empowerment of parents and caregivers

Access to high quality books

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WHAT'S NEXT?

September 25

Support or join our Rodman Ride fundraiser by visiting the event site here.

OUR MODEL

Raising A Reader MA partners with centers of early education and other community-based organizations to offer our evidence-backed dual intervention solution.

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RAR red book bag icon

BOOK BAG ROTATION

Our signature Red Book Bag rotation program allows each child to bring home a different bag of books each week, exposing him or her to dozens of classic and new titles throughout the year.

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PARENT WORKSHOPS

Our staff offers a series of individually tailored, evidence-based parent educational workshops that focus on discrete interactive reading strategies to strengthen the culture of reading at home.

WHY EARLY LITERACY?

There is a literacy opportunity gap affecting children and families across Massachusetts.

Ratio of age-appropriated books per child in middle and low-income neighborhoods: middle income 13 books: 1 child; low income 1 book: 300 children
1 in 3 children in the US enter kindergarten unprepared to learn.
If not reading proficiently by 3rd grade, children of color from low income families are 8 times more likely to drop out of school later on.

Our model is supported by more than 30 years of research showing that being regularly read to by a parent or caregiver before kindergarten is the most significant factor impacting a child’s academic success.

Evidence for our Model

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to close the literacy opportunity gap among children ages birth to age six in high-need communities by helping families develop and practice shared home reading habits.

OUR VISION

Our vision is to make interactive reading a joyful and rewarding routine for all families. We equip parents to be their child’s first teacher, empowered to be active participants in their child’s education, impacting success in school and beyond.

OUR SOLUTION

We work to end the cycle of low literacy by helping families across Massachusetts develop high impact home reading routines that lay the groundwork for a lifetime of learning, success, and productive, responsible citizenship.

OUR IMPACT

Father and daughter reading Abuela

Increased Reading Frequency

After participating in the Raising A Reader MA program, parents/caregivers consistently report increasing the number of times a week they read with their children.

Raising A Reader Ma - Opening Doors By Opening Books - Parent Engagement For Early Literacy

Increased Use of Reading Strategies

Parents increasingly use dialogic reading strategies (such as asking questions and talking about new words) with their children after attending our workshops.

View Our Annual Reports

"Every program would gain additional value with Raising A Reader. Providing children a wide variety of literature and supporting parents to bond and read with their children is priceless!"

LAWRENCE TEACHER

"I definitely see a difference in children who had Raising A Reader in preschool and those who came to kindergarten without. They know how books work, how illustration and text go together."

TEACHER

"Learned a lot from Raising A Reader. Reading to me, I thought was just reading the sentences from the book. [...] I think I learned a lot from Raising A Reader about reading with my child in this interacting way. [Before] it was boring for my younger son to read sometimes. He didn’t want to stay still, but now he’s much better because maybe I changed the way I do it."

RAR-MA PARENT

"We talk about book sharing being an important aspect of language development and RAR makes access to materials not a barrier. I am so grateful for this program and proud to offer it and partner with RAR."

SPEECH LANGUAGE PATHOLOGIST, CHELSEA/REVERE

OUR FEATURED FUNDERS