The non-profit Reading Partners has received eight million dollars in funding from the U.S. Department of Education to strengthen its efforts to help children in lower-income neighborhoods.
The money will help Reading Partners expand its tutoring program and be used to assess the effectiveness of the tutoring.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee said in a statement Thursday, "Programs like this are doing vital work to close the equity gap in our public schools. For generations, Black, Brown, and lower-income students in our public schools have been denied equitable resources and educational opportunities.”
Reading Partners' tutoring program serves 16,000 students each year in grades K-4. In the East Bay, it's been helping more than 500 students at 14 schools in Oakland and San Lorenzo.
The Oakland-based educational non-profit provides weekly support to students individually to help them read at grade level.
