Volunteer in Charlotte
What is the HELPS Program?
The Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies (HELPS) Program is one of several programs offered by Helping Education. HELPS is an evidence-based, research validated intervention that is proven to build students’ fluency reading skills and confidence. It is a highly scripted program that can be easily delivered by trained tutors.
The HELPS Program’s Impact in Charlotte
During the 2022-2023 school year*:
*DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency was the assessment used to measure growth from middle to end of year and includes students who received at least 30 sessions of HELPS.. *Students exceed expected growth in reading fluency when making more gains and words read correctly per minute than typically expected for their grade level. *Improvements may not be a direct result of the tutoring.
"[The HELPS Program] is elegant in its simplicity. There are a lot of reading programs where if you look at what they’re trying to do, they are trying to address multiple skills at once. HELPS is focusing on one skill — fluency."
– Munro Richardson, Read Charlotte Executive Director
HELPS Tutors
What We Accomplished Together in Charlotte
2022-2023 :
Why Our Tutors Love HELPS
- Charlotte HELPS tutors work with the same 2 students each week in back-to-back half-hour sessions.
- HELPS tutors report witnessing visible progress in students reading.
- One hour served by HELPS tutors per week gets students closer to reaching reading proficiency.
Why HELPS?
- The HELPS (Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies) reading fluency intervention is specifically designed to improve students’ text reading fluency.
- HELPS has over 10 years of published research supporting its effectiveness in increasing students' reading proficiency and has been found to be one of the most effective, feasible, and affordable programs for ensuring that children will succeed in reading.
- In the 2016 Educator’s Practice Guide for Early Reading Instruction, published by the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse, HELPS was summarized as one of only a small number of reading programs that significantly improved children’s word reading, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension.
If you are looking for tutoring opportunities and positions in Charlotte, become a HELPS tutor today.