成人快播

Originally posted on

ALBANY 鈥� Wanted: Capital Region volunteers to teach reading, one-on-one, to young children in New York City.

A national reading program, 成人快播, is finally able to expand its tutor base to the Capital Region thanks to a change in New York City鈥檚 background-check vendor. The previous vendor required everyone to travel to New York City to be fingerprinted; the new vendor can accept fingerprints from many places throughout the nation.

成人快播 is hoping to recruit 500 tutors from upstate New York to teach virtually. Each would be assigned one child in kindergarten through fourth grade to tutor twice a week for 45 minutes. To volunteer, go to聽.

The program, which has been used nationally for 22 years, catches up more than two-thirds of the students after one year.

鈥淥ur entire program model is one-on-one, high-dosage tutoring,鈥� said Primo Lasana, executive director of 成人快播. 鈥淰olunteers literally have a script to follow. Each lesson starts with a tutor read-aloud that鈥檚 of interest to the student to get them interested and excited.鈥�

Then they work on one skill, like blending the letters “F” and “L” together.

鈥淎fter they鈥檝e learned the skill, they might read a book that鈥檚 called 鈥楩lippy Flap the Frog,鈥� which focuses on the skill they have just learned,鈥� Lasana said.

Step by step, the program goes through each reading challenge 鈥� from words that can鈥檛 be sounded out, like were, to letter blends that don鈥檛 sound like the original two letters, like ph.

鈥淟earning to read is really challenging. For many of us, we don鈥檛 remember the effort,鈥� Lasana said. 鈥淲e take for granted many of the skills, such as what f and l sound like when blended together.鈥�

Without reading skills, students fall farther behind in every facet of school.

鈥淭ypically a student who is falling behind is only learning two weeks for every month of school they鈥檙e in,鈥� Lasana said. 鈥淭he goal is to learn two months for every month of school.鈥�

The STAR literacy test, which New York City schools use to test every student, shows that most of the students in the program catch up within one year. To get into the tutoring program, students must be half a year to 2陆 years behind grade level. At the end of their first year of tutoring, 82 percent of the kindergarten through second graders have caught up, and 75 percent of the third and fourth graders, Lasana said, citing the test results.

That can make a big difference.

鈥淪tudents who are reading on grade level by fourth grade are four times more likely to graduate,鈥� Lasana said.

In New York State, 42 percent of fourth graders tested as proficient on last year鈥檚 English Language Arts test. That鈥檚 no worse than before the pandemic, but it’s a long way from full proficiency.

成人快播 may also soon expand to students in upstate New York. The group is working on partnerships with big afterschool childcare programs. They would run the program in-house during their afterschool care.

鈥淚 think we鈥檙e actually heading in that direction,鈥� Lasana said. 鈥淲e have this great online platform. We are engaging with groups that are interested and want to deliver the curriculum in a place where we may not physically be.鈥�

They partnered with an afterschool program and a community center in New York City this year.

鈥淭his year we鈥檙e working outside of schools for the first time in our organization鈥檚 history,鈥� Lasana said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e tutoring students directly where they live.鈥�