Closing Reading Gaps
How youth-to-youth reading interactions promote reading proficiency

The Citizenship Institute Youth Leadership Program (CI), an innovative “youth-to-youth” mentoring strategy in Cleveland, has proven that the younger generation can serve as agents of change in the community. Established as a partnership between the Mandel Foundation and the Cleveland Municipal School District, the CI provides participating youngsters with a range of experiences, information and opportunities that are designed to inspire and enhance their leadership ability.

In response to poor reading performance by pupils in the Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD) – with fewer than 75% of elementary school students reaching accepted levels of reading proficiency and a growing gap between CMSD and other school districts across the state - youth participating in the CI took it upon themselves to read to younger children.

Studies have shown that if children are read to at least three times a week, their reading scores are likely to increase. CI team members from CMSD schools visited Captain Arthur Roth Elementary School and read to children in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. They explained to the younger children how reading helped them to succeed in high school. Consequently, the Citizenship Institute teams overwhelmingly reported the great sense of pleasure they experienced in reading and interacting with the younger students, and equally the younger students shared the joy they received from having the older youth read with them.

It appears that interacting with younger children may also encourage high school students to be positive role models - making the reading project a win-win venture for all. Due to positive responses by both mentors and mentees, CI is planning to develop a long-term community-service based reading project at Captain Arthur Roth.

While fostering the children’s desire to read, both for pleasure and study, the program will help to close the reading achievement gap, one student at a time.  

The primary goal of the Citizenship Institute (CI) is to light a fire of civic intervention and activism under selected students in the Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD). The Citizenship Institute helps students to realize that they can become effective change agents in their community, by providing them with a range of experiences, information and opportunities that are designed to inspire and enhance their leadership ability.