An Emma E. Booker student we’ll call Raye entered third grade in 2019 reading at kindergarten level. Her third-grade teacher did everything she could and by the end of third grade Raye was up to second grade. It wasn’t enough to pass into fourth grade so Raye was held back. Her iReady plan would take three years to get Raye to grade level. But based on the data, Raye would have given up trying by that time.
Raye began receiving after school tutoring in October 2019. And after only two months’ instruction with Rocket Phonics for just two hours a week, she was reading at late third grade. Raye gained one year in two months!
Stephen Guffanti, a retired M.D. living in Sarasota, has been volunteering tutoring Newtown children to read for the past 18 months. Guffanti, the creator of Rocket Phonics and director of the Rocket Phonics Foundation, said, “Rocket Phonics is the exception. It is a reading program that can accelerate elementary students to grade level even after third grade.” Dr. Guffanti is the person who tutored Raye.
On Thursday May 7, the Templeton Foundation granted the Rocket Phonics Foundation $22,500.This gift will allow four local churches to host summer camps of volunteers tutoring Newtown’s at-risk kids to learn to read. The effort is called the Dreamers Summer Camp Expansion project.
Guffanti said, “The grant allows us to train volunteers to tutor 160 students this summer for the Summer Reading Challenge. Our goal is to bring all Newtown students up to grade level over the next three years. This will help the teachers tremendously. Students who can read their textbooks can learn so much more—and are much less likely to disrupt the classroom.”
“Over 1,000 elementary students are reading below grade level in Newtown alone. Research shows that if they don’t get to grade level by third grade they probably never will. The boys enter the school to prison pipeline and the girls go on welfare,” Guffanti said.
He explained, “The third graders who fail to reach grade level are 13 times less likely to graduate. As a dropout they will face a 50% unemployment rate and a loss of over $10,000 a year in income. Most likely, without our program these kids will never catch up. But with our program you will watch a miracle unfold before your eyes.”
Guffanti said, “I am looking for volunteers who love kids—volunteers in high school and adults. You’ll tutor reading in a summer reading camp for four hours a day five days a week for eight weeks. You will earn 160 volunteer hours. You’ll play games, have fun and my wife and I will train you. You will literally save this child’s life from a future of poverty and violence. Now we need students, volunteers and a place to bring them. Please contact me before June 8 if you’re interested.”
Contact Stephen Guffanti, M.D., at scguffanti@gmail.com or 760-613-8628