Established in 2025

The Listening to Readers program grew out of the Assistance League of San Jose Strategic Planning process. In 2022, the chapter reviewed community and member needs. We identified a need for individualized reading support in local schools and members expressed strong interest in volunteering directly with students. A dedicated committee developed Listening to Readers to meet both goals and to meet students’ needs. Since 90% of students struggling to read at the end of first grade often remain behind by fourth grade, Assistance League of San Jose’s newest program, Listening to Readers, was designed to improve reading fluency, a gateway to reading comprehension.

The program launched in 2024 with a successful 16-week pilot at Lyndale Elementary in Alum Rock school district, serving 12 students with four volunteers and two teachers. The results of the pilot gave LTR insight into the need for two program changes. Pilot Volunteers found students in the second grade were very deficient in phonics skills so we needed to begin our fluency practice with phonics in the first grade. They also learned the teachers had limited resources of books to give them to have students read. During the summer between the pilot and program implementation, the program chairperson found a series of decodable books based on a continuum of phonics in preparation for a research-backed program to begin in the fall of 2025.

In September 2025, Listening to Readers expanded to include all first and second grade classrooms at Ryan Elementary (Alum Rock SD), serving 18 students in three classrooms, and at Stipe Elementary (Oak Grove USD), serving 24 students in four classrooms.  Listening to Readers provided volunteers with two levels of decodable books emphasizing specific phonics skills and limited high frequency words. 

Beginning in January 2026, an additional lower level of phonics books was provided and a second group was added in one classroom to support six more students, bringing total participation to 48 students. Positive results led to an extension through the end of the school year and official adoption of Listening to Readers as a permanent program beginning in 2025–2026.

After eight months, as the program drew near to ending for the year, all students in the program demonstrated measurable gains in engagement and fluency, celebrated by successfully reading a published book hand-selected for them by their volunteer. While the need for Listening to Readers is nearly unlimited, the program’s growth depends entirely on the heartbeat of Assistance League of San Jose: its volunteers. With a commitment of just one hour every other week from September to May, new volunteers can help ensure that more children in San Jose unlock the door to a successful future through the power of reading.