About Team Read
We pair young readers with trained, paid teen coaches — building joyful readers and impactful leaders across four school districts.
hello from Team Read!
reading together since 1998
- Our Mission
Building Confident Readers. Developing Future Leaders.
Team Read propels young students to become inspired, joyful readers and teens to become impactful leaders, ready to succeed in school and life, building stronger communities for all.
- Our Vission
We envision equitable learning communities that nurture and celebrate the strengths of young readers and teen leaders, and where every student gets the support they need to thrive.
- Our Values
Literacy
Literacy Is The Gateway And Foundation Of Learning And Future Academic Success. And Literacy Is A Matter Of Social Justice: Throughout History And Still Today, This Access Is Not Equitably Distributed. We Work Every Day To Change This.
Youth
Young people learn and lead confidently, when nurtured, entrusted with responsibility, and held accountable. We take a strengths-based approach to our work with young readers and teen coaches, by listening to their voices, embracing and cultivating their assets, and supporting their empowerment.
Community
We believe it takes a community to nurture readers and teen leaders: from systems experts, to school administrators, teachers, and tutors. By creating a safe, supportive learning space for tutoring pairs to do meaningful work, both sets of youth develop confidence and purpose, shaping a better world for all.
Excellence
We are committed to continuous learning and improvement to achieve excellence. We approach our work with humility, curiosity, and an open mind. We take risks to accomplish our work better. We celebrate progress. We listen, refine, and try again.
Equity
We believe all learners should have access to the educational opportunities and support they need to thrive. We aim to support those students furthest from educational justice through the intentional selection of school partners and program participants. Our work is meant to equip, inspire, and educate our young people so they can change our world to become a just, equitable place for all.
Joy
We know that reading fluently brings joy — which is a powerful catalyst to curiosity, exploration, and all kinds of learning.
- Equity Statement
Equity isn't just a value. It's how we show up.
Team Read values diversity, equity, and inclusion through everything we do.
Our commitment
Team Read is committed to growing educational equity and implementing anti-racist practices, through our programs and as an organization. We do this in partnering with and impacting school systems, by increasing access and opportunity for youth who are furthest from educational justice and through the intentional selection of school partners and program participants.
Why it matters
Our work is meant to equip, inspire, and educate our young people so they can change our world to become a just, equitable place for all. This means increasing justice and fairness within our own organization and within the larger system in which we play a part.
How we act
We seek to address educational inequities—particularly racial bias and discrimination—through quality out-of-school programming that helps to close learning gaps. In this way, we ensure kids furthest from educational justice get the attention and instruction they need to read joyfully and well, and that their teen coaches acquire the skills they need to lead and succeed in life and work.
- WHo WE SERVE
We work with schools and communities and students who disproportionately come from:
01
Underrepresented Communities
African American/Black, Hispanic or Latina, Bi/Multiracial, Native American/Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander communities.
02
Low-Income Families
Students and families from low-income backgrounds, including those eligible for free and/or reduced lunch.
03
Multilingual Households
Households where English is not the home language.
Team Read acknowledges and values the intersections of race/ethnicity, gender identity and expression, class, sexual orientation, ability, age, national origin, and religious/spiritual identities in our students, our staff, and our organizational leadership.
- Our history
1997
Craig & Susan McCaw meet with Superintendent John Stanford to discuss strategies to support students' reading improvement. The Craig & Susan McCaw Foundation pledges $1 million to start Team Read. They worked with Joan Dore, the district's Reading Programs Manager, and her team, who researched and developed our current cross-age tutoring model.
1998
Tricia McKay-Lincoln is hired as Team Read's first program manager and that spring the program is launched at four elementary schools.
2000
Team Read hires its first full-time employee, Maureen Massey, as project coordinator. Team Read is awarded the A+ Partnership Award from the Alliance for Education for our partnership with the Seattle Public Schools.
2006
Team Read receives official status as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) agency.
2008
At the 10-year mark, Team Read is in 13 elementary schools and has served more than 12,000 students.
2012
First summer tutoring program in partnership with Seattle Public Library.
2016
Team Read partners with Highline Public Schools to launch a pilot program at Hazel Valley Elementary.
2017
Neighborhood Team Read is formed in partnership with local organizations to offer programming at community sites. A new fourth grade program is piloted (Team Read 4).
2018
Celebrated 20 years of reading success and partnerships with Seattle Public Schools, our 7th anniversary with Seattle Public Library, and our second anniversary with Highline Public Schools in providing high-quality reading tutoring and meaningful jobs for nearly 20,000 local students and teens.
2021
Team Read expands to Tukwila and Renton school districts, and adds a third partner elementary school in Highline.
2023
Team Read celebrates 25 years of service.
25 years ✦
- Newsletter