Summer Partnership Spotlight: Chinese-American Planning Council

This summer, Literacy Trust partnered with the Chinese American Planning Council (CPC). CPC’s mission is to “promote the social and economic empowerment of Chinese American, immigrant, and low-income communities,” and the organization has been vital to COVID-recovery efforts in Lower Manhattan and around the city. CPC has a deep relationship with our longtime school partner P.S. 2 in Chinatown, offering after-school enrichment for students and robust support for families and the broader community. In the summer of 2021, many community organizations partnered with schools for Summer Rising, a DYCD/DOE led initiative to give students in-person summer school, as well as community-based enrichment after a challenging hybrid learning year. Like many community based organizations (CBOs) around the city, CPC’s program leadership sought ways to incorporate intervention into the time they had with students to aid in student preparedness for the upcoming school year.

Constance Kong, CPC’s Interim Director and a former Reading Rescue instructor, told us, “We wanted to provide as much support to our students who lost a whole year of learning through the pandemic. We were excited for the opportunity to receive the intensive training provided by Literacy Trust.”

Literacy Trust provided Reading Rescue professional development to seven CPC Summer Rising staff members, most of whom are also after-school staff during the school year. Instructors were paired with one Summer Rising student each, allowing for a close bond to form between the instructor and student during daily, 30-minute Reading Rescue lessons. One instructor told Literacy Trust:

““I enjoyed being able to work 1:1 with a student and I learned a lot (and in great detail) about how to help a struggling young reader—something I wish was taught more in my education classes. Being a Reading Rescue tutor was a valuable experience for me and I am looking forward to continuing to become a better tutor.”
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Over the course of two summer months, the results were very encouraging. Since students typically receive Reading Rescue instruction for about half of a school year, the CPC partnership during summer was compacted, with the goal being less focused on reaching benchmark and more on improving students’ foundational reading skills as much as possible to prepare for the upcoming school year. Through the use of daily multimodal activities, students spent a significant amount of time sharpening their phonemic awareness and phonics skills, preparing them to begin the new school year as more independent readers. Additionally, all of the trained staff are now qualified Reading Rescue instructors, and will continue providing intervention to first and second grade students during CPC’s after-school programming at two sites during this school year.

It’s often the case that while after-school and summer school staff have ample experience working with children, they may not have experience offering an intervention to students. Literacy Trust Program Managers are skilled professional developers who offer manageable, realistic solutions and equip any instructor with tips and tricks to engage early readers in intervention. This skill development for after school and summer staff benefits all students who attend these programs, not just those in Reading Rescue instruction. 

CPC and Literacy Trust are eagerly embarking on a school year partnership, ready to hit the ground running and support more students in need of intervention to better access their grade-level curriculum, and ease back into school. We are excited to continue to serve the students in CPC’s community, and look forward to continued progress and support for students– both during in-school and out-of-school time. 

Do you know an after-school CBO partner that may have capacity for Reading Rescue intervention? Email info@literacytrust.org to connect!