RAISING A READER MA

OPENING DOORS BY OPENING BOOKS

Parent Engagement for Early Literacy

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THE PROBLEM

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

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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 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 MISSION

Our goal 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 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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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.

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.

OUR IMPACT

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Families Reading Together

Our programs consistently increase the frequency of parents reading with their children, with most families reading together at least three times per week.

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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.

Parent Ambassadors Share Their Stories

The Raising A Reader Parent Ambassadors are a cohort of parents who went through the Raising A Reader program and are now involved with parent outreach and running workshops. In this video, our Parent Ambassadors share about their current role in RAR-MA and how Raising A Reader impacted their children's education.

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