Our Story
It all starts with literacy
At Chapter One, we want to create a world where all children have the literacy skills needed to thrive.
So do classroom teachers!
Many classroom teachers are unable, on their own, to teach all students to read. They simply don’t have the time during the school day to provide the kind of individual instruction that struggling readers need to succeed.
If students don’t develop a strong phonics foundation and reading fluency by the end of second grade, it is very unlikely that they will be proficient readers in later grades.
We provide 1:1 reading support at the time students need it most: kindergarten, first, and second grade.
Our high impact tutoring helps children develop core phonics, word attack, and fluency skills ensuring they have a strong literacy foundation.
Our program uniquely leverages technology to shorten the tutoring sessions, making our program more affordable, reducing the disruption caused by lengthy pull out programs. In addition, students receive daily independent practice using tablets provided by Chapter One for timely and immediate reinforcement of the skills assigned during conferencing with their tutor.
Chapter One is also proud to partner with over 200 global corporations who recruit employees as online reading volunteers helping students build reading confidence, self-esteem, and a love of reading. This program supplements our high impact tutoring to provide students with an additional 30 minutes of one-to-one supported reading each week. Our international team and network of volunteers make up the world's largest virtual reading program for children, and we're still growing!
Our Global Free Library offers online stories at no cost to the world. We commission authors and illustrators from around the globe to create original stories, told in their authentic voices, that will inspire the children and adults who read them.
We believe that learning to read is a basic civil right. That right has been denied to millions of children in past generations. Together, we can ensure the next generation is better served.
Our Mission
78%
If a student is not reading at grade level at the end of first grade, there is a 90% likelihood that the student will not be a proficient reader at the end of third grade, which in turn makes it highly likely the student will eventually drop out of school.
In a two-year, K-1 program, 78% of students taking part in our high impact tutoring program were reading proficiently by the end of first grade.
Our mission is to substantially increase reading abilities of the elementary school students we serve.
Our History
Chapter One has been developing innovative software to advance early literacy since 1993.
Formerly called Innovations for Learning, Chapter One was launched 30 years ago. Our founder, Seth Weinberger, co-founded a preschool in his Chicago area community. Seth saw the challenges teachers face in helping struggling students learn to read. So to free up their time, he developed software which helped students practice their basic reading skills.
Since then, Chapter One has established a High-Impact Tutoring program, a Reading Volunteer program, and a Global Free Library. In 2018, we expanded our services to Canada and the United Kingdom. Our services have been designed to help build reading skills and confidence in children who might otherwise slip through the cracks.
Our staff of high impact tutors currently help teach over 25,000 students to read, making us one of the largest high impact tutoring programs focused on K-2 reading. Our international team and network of volunteers already make up the world's largest virtual reading program, supporting thousands of children each week. And we’re still growing.
