About STAIR

Run to Read for STAIR!

On Sunday, March 4th, 2012 thousands of people will hit the streets of downtown New Orleans to run in a full or half Marathon. The majority of people running will be raising money for the American Cancer Society.  We need your help to raise money for STAIR!  

If you’d like to sponsor a Run to Read participant, click on the Donate Now button below.  Or, if you’d like to become a Run to Read runner or volunteer, call the STAIR office at 899-0820. 

 

STAIR is a volunteer-based, non-profit children's literacy organization that provides reading tutors for public school second grade students. STAIR was founded in New Orleans in 1985.

Over the last 26 years, STAIR's trained volunteers have tutored more than 6,000 public school children who qualify for the program. Volunteer tutors work one-on-one with second graders to improve their reading and language skills. These students are in danger of academic failure and need this extra help to succeed. Students and tutors meet after school Monday through Thursday or on Saturday morning at sites around Orleans,  Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes. STAIR depends on support from the community to provide this service at no cost to the student, family or school.

During the 2010-2011 school year, STAIR operated 29 tutoring sites serving 250 students from more than 30 public elementary schools in Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes. More than 300 volunteers participate in our program each year.

Recommended by their teachers, STAIR students are 7-9 year old second graders. Nearly 70% are African-American boys and girls living below the poverty level in our community. .

STAIR to Success: STAIR relies on scores furnished by the schools who test the children using DIBELS, DRA or STEP, depending on the school.  Pre-STAIR test scores are obtained to determine the eligibility of students at the beginning of the year, and post-STAIR test scores are obtained to determine the success of the STAIR program at the end of each school year. For the 2010-2011 school year, on average, STAIR students' scores in Oral Reading Fluency increased more than 100%!