Local resident working to increase the reading ability of Kingston-Galloway students

For some, school is stimulating. But for others, it can be really rote — a learning style that doesn’t suit everyone.

That’s why one group in Scarborough launched an innovative teaching model that aims to help all kids learn how to read.

Kingston-Galloway/Orton Park (KGO) is a Scarborough neighbourhood that sits between Woburn and West Hill.

In 2011, nearly half of all grade three students in KGO didn’t meet Ontario’s standards for reading. In response, local resident Camesha Cox came up with a solution and launched The Reading Partnership that same year.

Thirteen years ago, 49 to 60 per cent of grade three classrooms across KGO did not meet Ontario’s standards for reading, according to Cox. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, those numbers increased even more, with 70 to 80 per cent of kids in KGO failing to meet Ontario’s standards for reading. 

“As an educator, I understand very deeply that the response to this has to be a collective effort, right? Teachers alone cannot respond to this,” Cox explains.

“Imagine being in a class where 80 per cent of your students need one-to-one support. How do you provide that? So we really have to have all caring adults in a child’s life, equipped to support them, right? In school, at home and in the community. And that’s what we do through our work.”

The Reading Partnership is a literacy program that collaborates with local schools and nonprofits like the Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities (SCHC). While the program provides literacy material, SCHC creates partnerships with schools, finds families in need and delivers in-person programming.

“I’m a parent that’s struggling to make it, and I don’t generally have time for the kids. Now, how [The Reading Partnership for Parents] affected me is…I have time for them. I have different ways to teach them now,” says participant Felix Egbe.

“[Some] families don’t want to open up…because they’re afraid of being judged. I find certain stigmas are attached to certain groups of persons,” says Antoinette Brown, a SCHC staff member. “Some of the resources that might be there … families may not want to take advantage of.”

Brown says the result is some parents don’t access resources, such as a reading program. 

Last year, at Willow Park Jr. Public School, 80 per cent of third-grade students were not meeting Ontario’s reading standards. After The Reading Partnership stepped in, that number has fallen to 70 per cent.

The Reading Partnership now serves 130 families across four communities in Toronto, and continues to grow by equipping organizations like SCHC to lead and facilitate their own local programs.