LA GRANDE — Local college students are honing their teaching skills while combating child literacy deficiencies.

Eastern Oregon University’s College of Education recently teamed up with Ignite! Reading, a program that utilizes one-on-one, hands-on tutoring to increase reading proficiency among grade school students. The partnership with Eastern is the first of its kind, preparing EOU grads to enter the workforce as teachers who are efficient in teaching students how to read.

“We are creating an innovative methodology for ensuring that all kids in our country learn to read on time, which is the end of first grade,” Ignite! Reading CEO Jessica Sliwerski said.

Ignite! Reading is an intuitive, one-on-one reading program that seeks to improve reading ability among grade school students in the United States. The web of tutors currently stretches across schools in six states, leaning on the “science of reading” to target specific areas of reading inefficiency to help bridge the gap for struggling grade schoolers.

The program came about during the COVID-19 pandemic and began operation in California during the summer of 2021 when Sliwerski put her learning methods into place to target reading inefficiency in grade school students. The program is not a response to COVID-19, but rather leans on the versatility of virtual learning to provide students with 15 minutes of high-dosage reading instruction per day.

At Eastern, students in the college of education will gain hands-on experience throughout a 10-week training and tutoring program this spring semester. The program focuses on giving future teachers a one-on-one tutoring experience, building a productive relationship between teacher and student.

The partnership, which is the first between Ignite! Reading and a university, was initiated when Sliwerski’s interests aligned with those of Eastern Oregon University’s Ronda Fritz. The associate professor at EOU’s College of Education has been an advocate for bringing the “science of reading” curriculum to rural Oregon schools to improve reading skills. Fritz noted that the partnership with Ignite! Reading allows Eastern students to have a positive impact on students locally and across the country.

“Ronda and I had this brain meld around marrying Ignite! Reading with EOU’s intentionality of ensuring that their teachers leave EOU, step into the classroom and are completely prepared to ensure their kids learn how to read,” Sliwerski said. “That was the spark.”

According to The Nation’s Report Card national achievement-level results, roughly 65% of fourth grade students in the United States read at an efficiency below their grade level. Sliwerski’s vision with Ignite! Reading is to close that gap and give students foundational skills and the confidence to thrive in the classroom.

“We are trying to stamp out a statistic right now that is utterly heartbreaking,” Sliwerski said.

Students at Eastern will participate in the 10-week program that consists of training using evidence-based curriculum. The Ignite! Reading program includes daily tutoring with students from kindergarten through fifth grade, both locally and nationwide. Fritz noted that the virtual format of the training and tutoring sessions allows for both the grade school students and teachers to make adjustments and improvements as they go along.

“Because it’s delivered on Zoom, we can keep track of how they’re doing and help them hone their teaching skill,” Fritz said. “It has the possibility to help struggling readers make huge gains.”

The partnership between Eastern and Ignite! Reading carries a shared mission, bettering child literacy and improving the methods teachers use to teach the skill.

As the university looks to build on the new partnership in years to come, “the possibilities are endless,” Fritz said.